
^ -^.^^^"^i ^bfgitized by the InternBt Archive j= \^^^ -^ 
^,% ' ' ^ ' ' V^ ^ ^ w, irf 2010 with funding tem - « ' ^^^^ ^ ^. ^^ %^ '^ 
^ - '% <^'^^ The%i^brary of Congress^ c,-^"^' ^ i^^^-^ ^^ 










f- ,x#t^V/wwma'*^h,ive,€^g^ o 




JOSEPH E. WING. 



Alfalfa Farming 
In America 



^^ 



y\^ 



By JOSEPH E. WING 

Late Staff Correspondent of The Breeder's Gazette 



J^ 



-y^ 



CHICAGO, ILL.: 

Sanders Publishing- Company 

1916 



^% 



Copyrighted, 1912. 

BY SANDERS PUBLISHING CO. 

All rights reserved. 



Copyrighted, 1916. 

BY SANDERS PUBLISHING CO. 

All rights reserved. 



m 16 1916 



0)C1,A427438 

7/r ' 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 3- 45 

History , 46- 77 

Varieties of Alfalfa 78- 83 

Habit of Growth 84- 96 

Seed Bearing Habit, The 97-100 

Getting a Stand of Alfalfa 101-106 

Carbonate of Lime 107-149 

Manures and Humus In Soil 150-175 

Phosphorus for Soils 176-188 

Potash as a Fertilizer 189-190 

Plowing the Soil 191-198 

Seeding and Cutting 199-222 

Inoculation and Nitrogen 223-236 

Alfalfa in Crop Rotation 237-248 

Yield of Alfalfa 249-253 

Disking and Cultivating 254-257 

Weeds and Grasses 258-265 

Alfalfa Diseases 266-267 

Seeding Grasses 268-276 

Growing by Irrigation 277-292 

Time of Cutting 293-298 

Harvesting Hay in the West 299-301 

Haying Tools 302-308 

Hay-Making in Rainy Countries 309-322 

Soiling and Pasture 323-335 

As A Pasture Plant 336-347 

Alfalfa in South America 348-353 

Alfalfa for the Silo 354-355 

Baling Alfalfa Hay 356-357 

Seeding Value of Hay 358-862 

Chemical Composition 363-372 

Alfalfa for Horses 373-379 

Alfalfa for Cattle Feeding 380-385 

Alfalfa for Dairy Cows 386-391 

Alfalfa for Sheep 392-395 

Hay for Sheep Feeding 396-401 

Alfalfa for Swine .402-414 

Alfalfa for Poultry 415-416 

Making Alfalfa Meal 417-418 

Plowing Alfalfa Sod 419-423 

Animal Pests and Diseases 424-429 

Growing Alfalfa Seed 430-465 

Barns and Sheds for Storing Hay 466-469 

Alfalfa in Texas 470-472 

Alfalfa in Hawaii 473 

Alfalfa in Algeria ; : 474 

Vitality of Seed 475 

Summary of Alfalfa Sowing 476r522 



INTRODUCTION. 

In March, 1886, the writer, a tall awkward young 
man fresh from the fields of Ohio, was traveling by 
rail through Utah. Near Provo he began to see 
snug farms with trees, meadows, orchards, granaries 
and haystacks. S'ome of these stacks had been cut 
in two with the hay knife, and he noticed with won- 
der the beautiful green color of the fresh cut sur- 
face. Calling the attention of the conductor to this 
phenomenon, so strange to him, he asked, ^'What 
sort of hay is in those stacks^ " " Lucern, ' ' prompt- 
ly replied the conductor. ''And what makes it so 
green f ' ' It 's green because that 's the color of it, ' ' 
sagely replied the smiling conductor, as he pocketed 
a cash fare and moved on about his business. At 
that date lucern, or alfalfa, had not spread much 
east ^of the valleys of Utah ; some was grown in Col- 
orado, but it was a new thing there. The Utah 
farmers were many of them English and Danish, 
hence their choice of the old name lucern, while the 
Spanish term alfalfa had come in from Chili by way 
of California. 

Late that night the writer reached Salt Lake City 
and early next morning he was up ready to explore. 
In his rambles about the quaint old city (more old- 
world than American at that time with its houses 
of adobe, its walled gardens and orchards, its rows 
of towering Lombardy poplars) he came across a 

(3) 



4 AFLALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

square devoted to the hay market. There stood 
awaiting purchasers dozens of loads of this curious 
green-looking hay. He went to a load of it and drew 
out a stem and chewed it to see what it tasted like. 
To his astonishment it tasted good, much as wheat 
tastes when chewed. It dissolved in his mouth and 
tasted as though it would nourish him. ''The best 
country I have struck yet," remarked the boy to 
himself. ' ' If ever I get hard up here I can at least 
go to a haystack and eat lucern hay. I won't 
starve/* Curiously enough it later came to his 
knowledge that this first impression was true, that 
alfalfa hay has really in it nearly the same amount 
of nutrition, pound for pound, as has oats, and from 
oatmeal have come mighty good men. 

Next the boy lived for a time in Salt Lake City 
and cared for his uncle's cow. She was a fine 
motherly cow, very wide where width did the most 
good, low down and gentle, with a big mouth 
and an appetite to match it. He fed her on alfalfa 
hay without grain. What milk she gave! That cow 
must have been a freak, for she gave some 5 or 6 
gallons a day of rich creamy milk with no other 
food than alfalfa hay and hydrant water. Steadily 
as he milked the cow the respect of the boy for 
alfalfa hay grew. 

Next the boy went down into the deep mountain 
canyons along Green River and worked there on a 
cattle ranch. It was a great ranch in dimension, 
full 40 miles in extreme length, extending from the 
horrid cliffs along Price Elver to the cool heights 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

of the Big Mesa, sloping down to the Nine Mile. 
Through this ranch ran a little creek called Eange 
Creek. The soil was sandy and gravelly along the 
creek, not very fertile. The climate was intensely 
hot; often the thermometer would climb to 110° and 
stay there day after day. Cattle and horses were 
kept on the ranch, some 2,000 cattle at times. In 
the narrow sandy valley little ditches were made to 
lead the water from the bubbling creek, idle foT ages 
though once Cliff Dwellers had farmed along its 
banks and grown corn, which they had stored in 
adobe 'and stone treasure houses high up under the 
cliffs. Now little fields were cleared from their en- 
cumbering sagebrush and grease wood, the water 
turned on, and they were planted to corn and al- 
falfa. It was called lucern then; later the name 
alfalfa overpowered and became almost universal. 
At first the alfalfa did not thrive along Eange 
Creek. It made a small feeble growth, but it stuck. 
In one field especially, down clo'se to the headquar- 
ters cabin, alfalfa grew the first year no more than 
about 6 inches high. The boy, who already had 
charge of the farm and general charge of all the 
ranch, was disgusted with it and wished to plow it 
up and try something else. The soil there was 
sandy, gravelly, open and rather coarse. An old- 
timer happening in at the right time counseled 
against plowing it. ''Let it be; you may have good 
alfalfa there another year," he said. This advice was 
heeded ; the next year the alfalfa there grew so high 
that when the burros would walk out into it only 



6 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

their heads would be visible. It produced four crops 
of hay and easily 8 tons to the acre. Water for 
irrigation was very abundant at that time in Eange 
Valley. It was the custom to flood the land over just 
before cutting off the hay and once afterward. 

At that time no one knew anything about soil inoc- 
ulation and the behavior of alfalfa was a profound 
mystery. It now occurs to the writer to explain the 
curious behavior of the alfalfa in this manner: up 
the canyon a mile or two was an established alfalfa 
field, not a good stand, but thrifty. When this field 
was irrigated the surplus water flowed on down to 
the lower field and went over that. It seems clear 
now that in this manner the bacteria were intro- 
duced from the established field to the new one. As 
long as the writer had connection with this ranch, 
some twelve years, this field continued to produce 
heavy crops of alfalfa, though not so wonderfully 
rank as the earlier growths. Doubtless the excessive 
irrigation leached away some fertility, and the con- 
tinual removal of hay without returning any manure 
or fertilizer told, even on that very deep and per- 
vious soil. However, the last crops that the writer 
remembers growing on this field could hardly have 
been less than 5 tons to the acre. 

It used to be a great joy to grow alfalfa on this 
old ranch. Before the alfalfa came there was noth- 
ing in the valley to relieve the monotony of brown, 
drouth-stricken nature. The alfalfa fields were 
vividly green squares and patches, relieving the 
monotony of brown sage brush and bare earth. The 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

advent of the alfalfa changed the animal life too of 
the canyon. Before alfalfa came there used to be little 
animal life save the chipmunks and lizards ; all had 
fled that could flee to the green mountain -tops. 
After alfalfa deer came to stay down in the meadows 
all summer long ; some of them had their little fawns 
down there. The boy foreman used to see the old 
does sitanding deep in alfalfa nibbling daintily very 
early in the morning as he went up to change the 
water. He would not shoot them; they were his 
companions. Humming birds too came in great num- 
bers to sip the sweet nectar of alfalfa bloom. They 
would sit in quaint rows along the wire fence, peer- 
ing curiously at the boy as he passed by smiling, 
shovel on his shoulder. Bees he had none, else there 
would have been great stores of honey made there. 
It was joy to grow the alfalfa, because the grow- 
ing of it was so very easy. The method of sowing 
was very simple. The fields were first made fairly 
level. There was a strong slope so that it was easy 
to get water to any part of them. Then furrows 
were made with a common turning plow run shallow, 
or else with a furrow marker that made a number 
of S'hallower furrows parallel with each other. Then 
the alfalfa seed was sown, sometimes brushed in 
with a brush drag, and then a tiny stream of water 
turned in each furrow and kept running there for 
days and days, since under that burning sun one 
could not count on sandy land holding moisture at 
the surface very long. Sometimes the alfalfa was 
sown in March, oftener in April. It did not make 



8 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

much hay the first season, hardly any in fact; the 
second year was when it began to hump itself. By 
the second year all furrows were pretty well leveled 
down or washed away; then the land was irrigated 
by flooding. Large ditches were placed across the 
heads of the fields, with lesser ones transversely 
lower down. The head ditches were provided with 
dams hastily thrown up across them from the sand 
of the ditch bottom. Then as big a head as could 
be mustered was turned in and all of it turned out 
in one place. The irrigator got out with his shovel, 
often in bare feet, and helped it flow this way and 
that, spreading it so that it covered that part of the 
field with an even-flowing sheet of water a few inches 
deep. When it had flowed a few hours the dam was 
broken, 'the stream carried further along to another 
turnout. By this simple plan of irrigation the writer 
unaided one summer watered about 90 acres of land. 
That was a happy summer. He had a big white 
burro, ^^Old Nig,'' which he kept saddled most of 
the time. Nig knew the work about as well as the 
boy knew it, and he would gallop merrily up the 
road to the top of the field in the morning, about 
two miles from the cabin, stand patiently under a 
Cottonwood tree till the work was done there; then 
with his master on deck gallop cheerily down to the 
next field, and so on till all the water had been given 
attention. There is a great fascination in working 
with water and the writer yet thinks irrigation 
farming one of the finest schemes in the world. 
The making of 'the hay was hard work, but not 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

accompanied with worry, because usually no rain 
fell between April and Sep'tember. We used to mow 
down the alfalfa and rake it while quite green and 
as soon as possible pile it up in big cocks and leave 
it there to dry out a while. In that hot sun and 
baking air the moisture disappeared very rapidly 
indeed, so that by the time we could get to hauling, 
the hay would be dry enough, and thus it retained 
perfectly its color, leaves and delicious aroma. Very 
joyous times we had at this haying, a lot of harum- 
scarum cowboys and ranch hands, strong as wild 
colts and rejoicing to see which of us could lift the 
largest forkful of hay. 

At first we simply hauled the hay on wagons and 
stacked it by hand. Later an ingenious Mormon 
boy showed us how to rig a pole stacker, and then 
we let the horse do the pitching. We accumulated 
great ricks of hay, hundreds of tons, against pos- 
sible severe winters. 

Meanwhile we were feeding alfalfa to our saddle 
and work horses, to poor cows and calves that would 
have died before green grass came had they not had 
this help, and occasionally fattening a bunch of beef 
steers on it for the spring market, when fat beef 
brings a premium in Denver and Salt Lake City. 
We had no grain at all and fed only alfalfa hay, 
making with it very good beef indeed, though doubt- 
less we would have made much fatter cattle had we 
had corn to feed along with it. 

We had a few old sows on the ranch and must 
make provision for feeding them and their pigs. 



10 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

They were astonisMngly prolific sows and gave us 
great litters of healthy pigs, so many sometimes 
that we did no't know what to do with them. The 
sows were kept penned up nearly the year through 
and during summer we simply cut alfalfa with a 
scythe and threw it over 'to them. This kept them 
in fine thrifty condition and their pigs grew but kept 
rather lanky on the diet. When fall came we would 
fatten them off with pumpkins and squashes and 
alfalfa. In winter time we would vary the diet by 
giving them dry alfalfa hay and alfalfa leaves. 
They throve well and it was at first very amusing 
to see hogs eat alfalfa hay, putting their feet on it 
to hold it down while they tore it apart with their 
teeth and chewed it as best they could. It was won- 
derful to us also to see what fine full udders our 
milk cows had. Old-fashioned milking Shorthorns 
they were, of the type that the fathers had. The 
Mormon settlers had brought with them their best 
family cows when they came across the range, and 
we had some of their descendants. We fed these 
cows only alfalfa hay in winter, and mostly soiled 
them on green alfalfa in summer, and what splendid 
foaming pails we carried down from the corral ! We 
half lived on milk and cream those days, being too 
busy to make butter. Sometimes we had trouble 
from alfalfa bloat. That came in the fall, after we 
had turned the cows on the meadows and they 
grazed the alfalfa that had come up since the last 
mowing and gotten badly frosted. We used to have 
strenuous times with these old cows, tying sticks in 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

their mouths like bridle bits, making them stand 
with their heads up a steep bank and putting cakes 
of ice on their distended sides. We never had one 
die, but learned then that frosted alfalfa is never 
a safe feed for a cow. 

Over on the Castle Valley desert were Mormon 
settlements. Castle Dale, Ferron, Price and other 
villages. They were on adobe soil mostly, a sad 
sort of alkaline clay, full enough of minerals but 
lacking in humus and life-giving properties. The 
first attempts of these settlers to grow grain were 
mostly unsuccessful; it would not thrive, and the 
people were incredibly poor. Little by little they 
got alfalfa to growing on this alkaline soil and then 
with cows and pigs and poultry they managed to 
live quite well. Finally one of them let the water 
run over his alfalfa in the winter so that it froze 
into solid ice over his field. This is sure death to 
alfalfa, unless there is air under the ice, and in the 
spring he had lost his meadow; nearly every plant 
of alfalfa was dead. He grieved over this, but set 
to work to see what he oould get from the land and 
planted a part of it to spring wheat, though it had 
previously refused to grow wheat, and a part to 
potatoes, also a very uncertain crop at that time in 
Castle Valley. The result was a crop of wheat that 
made 60 bushels to the acre, a marvel to the whole 
valley. The potatoes made some unheard of yield, 
about 900 bushels to the acre, I think, and the for- 
tunes of Castle Valley with its sun and brilliant skies 
and wildly desolate plains and crags was assured. 



12 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

These valleys were fertile, they would yield food for 
mail' and beast, and alfalfa was the magic sesame 
that made ojjen the door to the riches of the valley. 

All this time the writer was becoming more and 
more enthusiastic over the wonderful value of the 
alfalfa plant. Back in Ohio was the old home farm 
where he had spent his boyhood. It was a little 
farm of less than 200 acres, charmingly diversified 
by little hills, rich flat meadow lands, wet and half 
wild, in which grew wild lilies and pink fragrant 
spireas. There was woodland and pasture, a run- 
ning stream, the Darby creek, with swimming holes 
in it, a big pond where he had sailed his tiny ships 
not so very many years before, a corn field, usually 
of about 15 acres, meadows in irregular patches, 
and an old apple orchard that bore famously 'of big 
red apples. On that farm tO'O was an old man once 
tall but now bent and gray, weatherbeaten, seamed 
and furrowed from exposure, with a kindly serious 
face and a twinkling blue eye. That was the father. 
And a mother, small and agile and energetic, rather 
frail yet sunny and happy, ever singing at her work. 
That was mo'ther. And two younger brothers did 
the work about the barns and went to school. These 
younger brothers, men now, are yet on Woodland 
Farm and are the writer's partners. 

The writer had been a very close friend of his 
father, and together they had planned the work on 
Woodland Farm before he had gone west, and now 
the old man remembered his boy and knew of his 
interest in the old place, so he used to write now 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

and then long and careful letters telling of what he 
was doing, of the drains that he was laying, or the 
good corn that he grew. And the boy in his very 
first enthusiasm for the alfalfa plant sent home a 
package of seed by mail (that was in 1886) and 
asked the father to give it space and soil and care. 
And often in his daydreams he would ponder the 
question of returning some day to the old farm. He 
would dream idle dreams of what he might do there, 
how he might enrich it and plant it and maybe buy 
neighboring acres to add to it. 

Somewhat more than two years rolled away and 
the boy took a vacation and went back to the old 
home, to see the home folks, and a sweetheart he 
had there. It is a very joyful and rather a wonder- 
ful thing to come home after having been exiled to 
a strange land. The deserts of Utah were like an- 
other world, so that when the boy came to Ohio it 
was as though he had come to a dream world, so 
beautiful, and so natural and so lovely it all seemed. 
How eagerly he explored his old haunts, one by one! 
What old memories were stirred into life as he saw 
the meadows, the woodland, the hill planted to corn 
and kept immaculately clean of weeds, the orchard, 
the garden; the dear old father, stooped and aged 
more than the boy remembered him, went right to 
his heart; the mother, silvery haired now; the sister 
and young brothers! The sweetheart was of course 
unspeakably marvelous and wonderful, and it all 
was as though the boy had been born again into a 
new world. Soon after his arrival, as he explored 



14 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

with diligence, he asked the old man: ** Father, 
where is my alfalfa? Did you plant that seed that 
I sent you V '' Why, yes, I planted it, but it did not 
amount to anything. This is no country for alfalfa. 
It may do for you in the West, but it is of no use 
here ; but come and see it, what there is of it." Back 
of the garden the old man had spaded a square rod 
of good clay soil and sowed his seed. He led the 
way and pointed accusingly to the stunted little 
plants scattered thinly over the ground: ''There, 
don't you see that this thing is no good for OhioT' 

The boy stood in amazement looking at it, so dif- 
ferent from what he had fondly hoped it might be. 
His father turned away and left him, but still he 
stood studying the situation. Soon happened along 
a flock 'of his mother's fowls; they came to the 
alfalfa patch and began an eager search for leaves ; 
one by one they plucked them oif till nearly every 
plant was stripped bare, then walked away. ' ' Aha ! ' ' 
cried the boy; ''I see a light now," and he went to 
the well and pumped a tub full of water, which he 
carried and emptied carefully down by the strongest 
root that he could find. It was early August and 
the land was dry. To keep away the chickens he 
took an old barrel, knocked the heads out of it and 
put it over his alfalfa plant. In a little more than 
three weeks he was ready to go back to his work on 
the ranch and he went to say good bye to his alfalfa 
patch. To his delight the stalk of alfalfa had 
thrived for its wetting and its protection and had 
grown out through the top of the barrel! Joyfully 



INTRODUCTION, 15 

the Iboy called his father, "Come here; see what my 
alfalfa has done!" And the sire, amazed and be- 
wildered at first, stood there scratching his old gray 
head and smiling an amused, puzzled smile. Finally 
he turned and said: "Son, do you suppose that I 
want to grow a crop that won't grow till you put a 
barrel over it T ' The lad laughed and said no more, 
but went back to his mountains and the alfalfa 
fields, remembering the one stalk of alfalfa that had 
succeeded and saying, "I know that alfalfa can be 
grown in Ohio. If one stalk will grow as that one 
grew, why can't a man grow a thousand! If he can 
grow a thousiand, why can't he grow a million, why 
can't he cover his farm with alfalfa!" 

The ranch was not just the same to the boy when 
he came back to it, not just the same because he had 
ever before him the image of the sweetheart left be- 
hind. Yet it was a happy place, and he went tumul- 
tuously into the work again, strong as a young giant, 
eager to do, finding no day long enough for him. 
Now was time of happy dreams, and after a time 
the dreams began to materialize as he mixed mud 
and made "adobes," or "dobies," as the boys called 
them, and hauled down logs from far up the canyon, 
for She was coming and a house must be made ready 
for her. 

There were wonderful letters coming, too, and 
often the boy would be seen on Sundays sitting far 
up on the rocky hillside, away from the confusion and 
talk of the cowboys, reading the last letter that She 
had written, or writing one in reply to it. The work 



16 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of the ranch was much the same as it had been save 
that the ricks of alfalfa grew larger and larger each 
year and the problem of making and using the hay 
grew to be portentous. The mountains remained 
the same always, and the boy loved them deeply and 
climbed them eagerly, going up where never white 
man had been before, just to gaze off afar to other 
snowy ranges, and across sunny yellow valleys in 
the desert, beautiful from afar. All the cowboys 
loved him and worked faithfully for him; every one 
worked as hard as he could and the cattle waxed fat 
on a thousand hills. 

In November it was that the letter came, the letter 
written in that familiar crabbed yet plain handwrit- 
ing that the father used. Nearly always the father's 
letters gave the boy much pleasure. He opened this 
one expecting it to be like the others that had come, 
but it was a shock to find in it a totally different 
note. It read like this: "My boy, I wish you to 
come home. Times are hard back here; hired men 
are no good any more. I am getting old and infirm. 
I need you very much. Come home and help me 
with the farm. I do not see how I can get along 
without you longer." 

The letter gave the boy a rude shock. All at once 
he realized how he loved the wild ranch with its free- 
dom, its responsibility, its opportunities for doing 
things. He loved every hill and every mesa and 
every canyon. Half of the canyons he had named, 
some of them he only had ridden through. He 
loved the sun and air, the yellow bunchgrass, the 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

solemn pines. He loved the horses that he rode and 
the great herd of cattle in his charge, and his com- 
rades, rough as bears and loving as brothers. So 
he carried the letter in his pocket with a sad heart 
for a day or two, when little Billie Barnson, who 
was riding beside him, turned to him and said: 
''Joe, what in thunder is the matter with you? Has 
your girl gone back on youf "No, Billie, that is 
not what is the matter, ' ^ and in a few words he laid 
bare his heart; he ought to leave the mountains, 
perhaps forever, and he dreaded to go. ''Why, Joe, 
I'm ashamed of you.'' "Ashamed, Billie! Why are 
you ashamed of me!" "Well, Joe, if I had had a 
father as good as yours has been [Billie had never 
known his father] and in his old age he asked me to 
come home and help him, I'd go." That decided it. 
' ' I think you are right, Billie. I 'm going. " " Well, 
I want to see you smile then." "All right, Billie, 
I'll go, and I'll smile too," replied the boy, and his 
heart grew light again as he began to turn his 
thoughts toward home once more, and the simple 
but satisfying joys of the homeland. 

The homecoming occurred just before Christmas 
time of the year 1889. It was a very joyous home- 
coming. The kind and rejoiced old father, the old 
mother happy to see her son, and the things made 
dear by old association, all these conspired to make 
full the cup of joy; and beside near by lived the 
sweetheart. So the boy was very happy for some 
days. After that he began to explore again the old 
farm. It was a good farm, of 196 acres, mostly 



18 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

meadow and pasture laud, with a fiue bit of wood- 
laud, aud about 50 acres part of the time under the 
plow. It was farmed in the old-fashioned way — 
com followed by wheat aud wheat by clover and 
timothy. Hogs were kept and cattle; timothy hay 
was sold with wheat, pigs, fat steers, potatoes, 
parsnips, pears, grapes and a few minor items. The 
father was a careful man, economical to a degree, 
hard working and patient. He loved his land and 
cared for it as best he could, saving every scrap of 
manure aud tilling the soil with diligence. He loved 
his animals and fed them well. His driving mare 
was almost too wide to get between the shafts; his 
cattle knew him and would stand to be rubbed and 
petted. It was through no lack of industry or in- 
telligence that the father had not of late years made 
the farm pay ; it was due mainly to his following an 
unprofitable system of farming. 

When the boy came home there was an old lame 
negro man helping do the farm work, old ^^ Uncle 
Sam'' they called him, a faithful old soul but slow 
and feeble. In the feedlot were about eight steers, 
maybe twenty pigs were being fattened, in the crib 
probably 500 bushels of corn, in the mows maybe 50 
tons of hay. The boy took it all in very rapidly 
and a great hunger for the old ranch came over him, 
a hunger and a longing for its wide free life and 
its endless range of activities. To add to his unrest 
a letter followed him, a letter from the manager. It 
read like this: ^'Oome back, Joe, as soon as you 
can. Your place is awaiting you, and more wages if 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

you think best, and we will build the house for your 
sweetheart, and you shall be your own boss. Come 
back as soon as you have your visit out. ' ' 

Small wonder then that the boy soon began seek- 
ing to frame some explanation or excuse to offer the 
father, some way to tell him that he could not stay 
to care for the little farm, with the great ranch 
calling him. And the father could read the boy's 
mind like an open book, so one morning after family 
prayers he said: ^'My boy, I wish to talk business 
with you. I suppose you did great things in the 
West. You probably had 2,000 cattle there, if you 
say you did. I don't know, as I never saw that many 
cattle together and never expect to; but I wish to 
show you that this old farm is not played out either. 
Now see here, here is what we have done this year. ' ' 
Then he took down from the shelf his old account 
book and read off the items, all duly set down in 
black and white, the wheat that he had sold, and the 
hay, the pigs and the potatoes and the cattle. And 
together they carefully footed it all up. It amounted 
altogether to a little less than $800. Eight hun- 
dred dollars ! It came over the boy the good salary 
that he had forsaken in the "West and all the bright 
hopes of that golden land and his heart went down 
like lead. *^What," he said to himself, ''have I 
given up all my bright prospects, all my plans and 
aspirations to come back and manage a farm that 
does not produce more than $800 a year? Why, 
with such an income as that, with taxes to be paid 
and repairs to 'be made and all expenses to be metj 



20 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

1 can not so mucli as keep old Uncle Sam. I must 
myself get out with tlie lantern before breakfast and 
feed and curry the horses and begin over again to 
do all that drudgery that I had only lately escaped. ' ' 
It was not a very worthy thought, but it added to his 
perplexity. 

The old father waited anxiously for the boy's de- 
cision. Very gently he said: ^'My boy. when you 
were with me we made more money than this. The 
farm then was in better condition and times were 
not so hard. I am too old now to develop it as it 
should be developed and I am tired. My happiest 
memories are of the time when I was strong enough 
to be called a man, and you were my boy, helping 
me. Now I am tired of being the man ; I wish you 
to be the man. Won't you be the man, let me be the 
boy and help you!" There was silence for a little 
time while many thoughts passed rapidly through 
the boy's mind, then he came to decision. ^'Yes, 
father, I'll stay. I'll take hold of the old farm and 
do what I can with it. I think we can make it profit- 
able after a time, and you may help me." 

*'Grood," the old man exclaimed. ^'Now you go 
ahead and do whatever you wish to do. I'll give you 
chance to do it, for I'll feed the cattle and the pigs. 
I can feed them better than any man you can hire, 
and you know it." ''Of course you can," replied 
the boy. Then : ' ' Father, let 's go and take a walk. ' ' 
''All right; where shall we go?" "Oh, anywhere; 
just out to look at the farm again." Together they 
sallied out, the father happy as a child, the son glad 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

that it was settled, the uncertainty over, yet uneasy, 
feeling within him a rising tide of restlessness, an 
aching to get to work somewhere. 

They did not walk very far. Just beyond the 
barn was a field of flat clay land, wet, mostly poor 
and unprofitable. All over the field rose little clay 
chimneys, the work of crayfish. The boy stopped 
here. '' Father, may I drain this field!" "Yes; it 
ought to have been done years ago," was the reply 
full of hearty encouragement. The boy went to the 
village and came home with a ditching spade with a 
blade 18 inches long. He stretched a line where the 
first ditch was to be laid and began digging a long 
narrow ditch in which to lay tiles. How happy he 
was all at once! Those ranch muscles of his were 
in good training; mightily he dug. And as he be- 
gan pushing his muscles against that soil he began 
to believe in it, to have faith in it. And after he 
got down in the ditch and had rubbed the mud on 
him well he forgot the old ranch. When at last the 
ditch was dug and the tiles laid and covered there 
was one strip of land dry, only a beginning, true, 
but it was a beginning. The boy stood there that 
afternoon as he finished covering the tile and leaned 
on his spade and dreamed, and talked aloud to the 
old field. "Old field," he said, "some day I will 
make you all dry. Some day, old field, I will make 
your soil rich. Some day I will cover you over with 
clover, and with corn, and with alfalfa too. Some 
day, old field, out of you shall sprout and grow a 
home, a home for that sweetheart of mine." And 



'M ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

he looked at his watch; it was past 5 o'clock, so he 
went home and shed off his muddy overalls and went 
across the fields to see the sweetheart, happier than 
any king. 

Spring came in all its maze of bewildering hope 
and promise and beauty, as it comes in central Ohio, 
and the boy was supremely happy. There was just 
the joy of seeing God's miracles all around him, the 
bursting buds, the unfolding leaves, the blossoms on 
every twig, the tender grass hiding the dull, ugly 
earth, the dewdrops sparkling in the morning light 
and all the little birds singing cheerily their songs 
of gratitude and joy. There seemed something 
prophetic in it all, and something very wonderful, 
Grod's forgiveness-, Grod's fulfillment of His gra- 
cious promises. In a dim way the boy understood 
and believed, and realized his own duty in the mat- 
ter and bent eagerly to the task, seeking in a way to 
make himself partner with the Almighty to cover 
over the few acres entrusted to his charge with grow- 
ing things, with bloom and with beauty. 

Yes, it was the joyous seedtime when all one's 
hopes spring up anew and he has prophetic insight 
into what may be and what should be, not only of 
the good green earth, but of one's own soul as well. 
Every morning bright and early the boy was astir in 
the fields, with a faithful colored man, Frank, to 
help him. He had brought with him from Utah two 
bags of alfalfa seed and this he wished to sow. But 
the father was much alarmed. ''No, my boy, we 
cannot afford to sow so much as that at one time. It 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

has not been tried yet. You may have that potato 
patch down by the old orchard; that is good soil. 
Begin there and if that succeeds we will sow more 
later on." The potato patch had in it one-third of 
an acre. That was quite a coming down from his 
expectations, but he acquiesced and sowed the little 
field. Fortunately it was a good place to begin. The 
land was a strong clay loam, fairly well drained. It 
was full of carbonate of lime, for all through it were 
little pebbles of limestone. It was rich, for the cattle 
had stood there much when it was a part of the 
orchard. In some way or another it had become 
inoculated with alfalfa bacteria, perhaps because the 
father had grown sweet clover on the farm for years 
in odd corners and in his dooryard. So this alfalfa 
started out vigorously and grew well. The boy was 
delighted. He had a path well trodden where he 
had walked to see his first field. It settled in his 
mind the question of whether alfalfa would grow; 
he had no doubt whatever now that it would grow. 
Eapidly his mind went on ahead to the time when 
he would have 40, maybe 100 acres in alfalfa. The 
farm at that time had in it only about 50 or 60 acres 
of land that could be plowed. The rest was wet or 
poor or covered with trees. 

That summer came another boy from the old 
ranch, Willis. He was a wiry, slender lad, just out 
of his high school, and had spent about a year at 
ranching, getting health and strength there prepara- 
tory to going further with his education. He did 
not then dream of becoming a faxmer, yet he was. 



24 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

as enthusiastic as the older brother over the beauty 
and promise of the little alfalfa field. He took off 
his coat and helped with the farm work and enjoyed 
it hugely till September came, when he went away to 
school again. It happened that he never finished 
his education in school; the confinement of the 
schoolroom was too much for his health, so fortu- 
nately for the farm he came back a few years later 
to be a partner, and later to have almost entire man- 
agement of the farm. Willis dreams dreams of his 
own and makes them come true, and he loyally car- 
ries out the plans of the writer. Woodland Farm 
owes its final development very largely to the en- 
ergy and executive ability of this younger brother 
Willis. And there was another brother yet, a sturdy 
lad, Charles, growing up at home; he grew to be 
the largest and strongest of them all and mightily 
he bent his muscle to help with the work. Later he 
too spent years in the West, ranching with sheep 
and cattle, and harvesting alfalfa hay there. Then 
he also came home and found on Woodland Farm 
ample scope for all his energies. It is true, is it not, 
that any work is as big as the man who undertakes 
that work? 

That first summer was uneventful save in the fact 
that the alfalfa grew so well on the trial patch. It 
was a year of drouth and the corn crop was nearly 
ruined, only about 500 bushels in all being harvested. 
The chief events were the long and delighttul drives 
that the boy took with his sweetheart and the fre- 
quent walks he took to watch his alfalfa. When 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

fall came the sweetheart and the boy drove out one 
day along quiet byways and gathered a buggy load 
of wild flowers and vines and with these decorated 
the sweetheart's home, and that night they were 
married. Next day they went on a honeymoon jour- 
ney, with the same old horse and buggy, out again 
into the country, driving slow beneath the old oaks 
that overarched the road, and more than ever the 
boy resolved that his life should not be a failure; 
that in some way he would strive mightily to be 
worthy of her, who had been an inspiration to him 
since she was a merry child of eleven, with sunny 
curls hanging down on her shoulders. And as soon 
as they were married he began digging for the foun- 
dations of a little cottage in the corner of the wood- 
land, a cottage where she might be mistress. All 
winter whenever it was warm enough he worked on 
the cottage, so that it was done nearly altogether 
by the labor of his own hands saving that the sweet- 
heart's father came to help now and then. In June 
they moved in. All was fresh and new and clean, 
the whole air was full of hope and life was very 
joyous then. 

That spring they sowed another field to alfalfa, 
this time a little field of about 3 acres. And this 
field taught a much needed lesson. It began down 
by the creek where the land was low and wet, ran 
on up over a little hill where the land was dry and 
filled with limestone gravel, extended on back over 
some flat cold poor clay. And on only one acre of 
the three did the alfalfa thrive; that acre lay on 



26 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the rich dry bill, full of limestone pebbles. Down 
by the stream the alfalfa was weak, sickly, soon 
taken by the crowding grasses and weeds. Back on 
the flat wet poor clay it amounted to very little. On 
the dry rich soil full of carbonate of lime it thrived 
beautifully. So there the boy stood and pondered; 
the lesson was plain, though unwelcome. ^ ' It is evi- 
dent that this farm is not ready for alfalfa," he 
said. ^^I'll make it ready. I'll drain the wet land. 
I'll enrich the poor land. I'll grow alfalfa; some 
day I'll have 40 acres of it, but not so soon as I 
thought I would." So then began the work of lay- 
ing tile underdrains in earnest. The father had laid 
many in his day, but not nearly enough, judging by 
the new standard that alfalfa set up. 

And that fall the kind old father died, died in a 
peaceful and happy sort of way, as almost anyone 
would be glad to die. He had been fairly well that 
summer, and had insisted in helping in the hay field, 
raking with the horse rake and cheerily, almost glee- 
fully, showing the men that he was by no means 
worn out. One morning he arose early, as was his 
habit, and went out to work in his garden before 
the breakfast time, and there the boy had his last 
talk with the old man, and arranged with him about 
going to the fair soon to come off. After breakfast 
the father went to the barn and hitched his gentle 
mare Daisy to a spring wagon and got ready to go 
to the village on some errand, probably to take some 
vegetables to market. When the horse stopped at 
the front gate, coming from the barn, no one seemed 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

with her, and when the women of the house went out 
to see they found the old man lying in the wagon 
as though peacefully sleeping, with a half smile on 
his lips, dead. It was a fitting end. He had lived a 
strenuous life, he had been good, he had been kind; 
he had been builder not destroyer, and wherever his 
foot had been put down there rich grasses and 
clovers had sprung up. 

The writer makes no pretense of being as good or 
careful a farmer as his father was. We try to fol- 
low in his footsteps, that is all, and we do things in 
a larger way than he in his old age cared to do them. 
Yes, the father was gone, and with him the safe 
counselor, and the boy all at once realized how much 
he had depended upon this counsel. He could do 
as he pleased now, but he was not glad of the chance. 
He would have been very glad indeed if he could 
have had the continued company of the old father. 

He took account of stock. The farm was not pay- 
ing; the crops that grew upon it when all sold could 
not possibly bring money enough to make it a busi- 
ness worth while. Much of the land was too poor 
to be profitable. The little alfalfa fields paid well, 
but they were but small spaces after all ; the rest of 
the farm was mostly unfit for alfalfa. The farm 
needed enriching, needed further drainage. H ever 
it paid it must be made rich. How! Well, there 
was stable manure. The boy knew about that; the 
old father had been a most careful user of manure ; 
he saved all that he could, but he fed his cattle out 
in the woods where the manure was largely wasted. 



28 ALFALT^A FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The boy reasoned: ''Our practices are wrong. We 
sell off timothy hay and wheats and thus load by 
load we sell away the fertiUty of the farm, and>vhat 
we do feed is largely wasted, as we do not get the 
manure. Now if ever we build this farm up we 
must feed on the land the crops that we grow upon 
the land. And if we make any money in feeding 
animals we must feed younger animals than we 
have been feeding. We must feed some sort of 
babies. Now what shall it be?'' 

Then he thought of the lamb. ''Why, here is the 
lamb/' he said. "He is a baby, a gentle little fellow. 
One can put him in the barn, can feed him there in 
shelter. His manure will all be saved in good order 
and can go direct to the fields with no wastage, and 
from the feed given him one ought to make good 
gain and thus make money." He had already a little 
flock of ewes which were his pets and his darlings. 
To them he added now a little bunch of 200 feeding 
lambs, building a shed to hold them. As he had no 
money only what he borrowed, he bought the small- 
est and cheapest lambs that he could find. They 
were natives, fairly healthy, and weighed 55 lbs. 
when he put them in the sheds in November.. He 
had carefully dipped them in a half barrel, and had 
himself as thoroughly dipped as the lambs, so they 
were free from ticks. All winter he fed them care- 
fully, every feed with his own hands. Not knowing 
anything about feeding lambs, he had written to 
Prof. E. W. Stewart to get his advice as to how 
they ought to be fed, and he had told him how to 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

compound a ration with wheat bran, oilmeal, corn 
and mixed timothy and clover hay. He had too httle 
alfalfa hay yet to make much show in the feeding 
barn. The lambs throve; they became very fat in- 
deed and in May weighed 108 J lbs. In fact in all 
the years that lambs have been fed on Woodland 
Farm no such gain has since been secured, which 
simply shows that a greenhorn may do as well as 
an expert, if he has his heart in it and is earnest 
and careful. The boy had kept careful account of 
what the lambs had eaten so he knew what the gain 
had cost him. When he had figured it all up he 
found that he had made a clear profit from feeding 
these lambs of $115, the first real profit from 
Woodland Farm since his new venture in manage- 
ment. It was a small sum, yet mightily it encour- 
aged him. And then he dreamed another dream, out 
there on the sunny side of the barn. Thinking it 
over, he said: ^'Some day we'll feed a thousand 
lambs on this farm.'' But he told no one that, not 
even his wife, for all would have smiled in derision, 
for had he not bought part of the hay that he had 
fed this first 200? 

But there was more manure to haul out than ever 
before, and it was put where corn would be grown 
and where alfalfa might be expected to succeed, 
and more alfalfa was sown. Wherever the manure 
had been put out and the drains laid the alfalfa suc- 
ceeded. Inoculation took care of itself on Woodland 
Farm after the first start, because of the use of 
manure made from alfalfa hay perhaps, and every 



BO ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

little field added to those first started succeeded in 
almost direct proportion to the amount of manure 
used and the thoroughness of the under drainage. 

The next winter 300 lambs were fed, then 350, then 
350 again, and then a larger barn was built and 700 
were fed. The work grew easier and easier ; wheat 
was dropped from the rotation, and no more timothy 
seed was sown. Lamb feeding promised profit, so 
finally it was resolved that lambs would be fed and 
crops grown that lambs liked, and nothing else. 
Meanwhile Willis and the writer bent their backs 
energetically in the ditches, draining more and more 
land, and hiring men to dig what they could not. 
Charlie, too, growing up a stalwart boy, helped 
cheerfully, and the three brothers were full of faith. 
And yet neighbors smiled, and some there were to 
sneer. It is true that when the new barn was built 
with a mow that could hold 100 tons of hay men 
asked smilingly if we thought we could borrow 
money enough to buy hay enough to fill it, and went 
off laughing when we declared that we would fill it 
from our own alfalfa meadows some day. No one 
else in the country was trying to grow alfalfa, so 
far as we knew, no one else in Ohio, though there 
was some grown in Onondaga Co., New York. Well, 
we filled the barn at last, and had an overflow. We 
fed a thousand lambs as we had dreamed, and we 
fed 1,200. We had learned how at last. Lamb feed- 
ing is an art, a science ; it is not yet all learned. 

It had not all been smooth sailing, this lamb feed- 
ing. More than one disaster had overtaken us. 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

There had been bad years, low prices, diseased 
lambs, all sorts of troubles. Grimly we had held on. 
' ' We can 't afford to change now, ' ' we declared. ' ' We 
have made too many mistakes in what we are doing. 
To change now would be to lose all we have gained 
by making these mistakes; we don't have to make 
the same mistakes the second time." So we held 
on, confident that our scheme was a safe and reason- 
able one, based on alfalfa growing, the alfalfa fed to 
lambs, the manure put out for corn, the well en- 
riched corn stubble sown to alfalfa, often with addi- 
tional phosphorus and as much as possible of the 
corn and alfalfa fed back to lambs again. 

But during these years we were in debt, a little at 
first, but steadily the debt grew. We owed for labor 
to dig drains, we owed for labor and materials to 
build fences and barns. We did all the labor that 
we could do with our own hands, but we were too im- 
patient to wait to develop the place ourselves. 
^'Farming either is or is not a business proposi- 
tion," we declared. ^' If it is a safe business propo- 
sition this thing will pay some day, and if it is not 
we will break and be done with it. If we can 't farm 
as a business proposition we prefer to break up 
trying it." And ever and often the writer, the 
older of the brothers, declared to Willis, his willing 
lieutenant: ^^It is only a question of one good year, 
just one good year, and the lambs will pay every 
dollar that we owe and we will have the ditches laid, 
the buildings built, the fields made fertile, and it 
will all be ours." 



S2 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

That year came when we had 1,200 lambs. We 
had learned how to feed them by this time, and 
they were as alike as peas, and ripe and fine as they 
could be. The commission merchants down in Buf- 
falo had learned to watch for our lambs and to prize 
them. They had an alfalfa quality about them that 
Qo one could attain except he had alfalfa. We had 
fed them this winter altogether on alfalfa hay and 
ear corn, all grown at home, and we had hay left 
over enough to sell to our neighbors ; some of whom 
needed hay with which to do their spring plowing. 
Well, we sold the lambs, one load at a time, and the 
checks came back and we laid them down on the 
bankers ^ counter. Now we owed no one in the world 
but this bank, but we owed it a lot of money. Stead- 
ily despite the fact that we had economized, had rid- 
den in our old buggies and worn our old clothes, 
this debt had grown, and at last it had become a 
serious burden on our minds ; it seemed' incredible 
that it would ever be paid. 

At last the last check had come. With a fast beat- 
ing heart the writer laid it down on the bankers' 
counter. ^'Here it is. The lambs are all sold; is 
it enough to pay that noteT' The banker smiled; 
he was a good fellow. ''Yes, plenty to pay it, and 
some over," and he handed the note through the 
window, cancelled. The writer looked at it; how 
huge then the amount of it seemed ! He tore off the 
signature and turned anxiously again. '^Tell me," 
he asked, ''how much is there left!" The banker 
ftifured for a moment and presented with a smiling 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

face the bank book, where on the right side of the 
page was a credit balance of $800. The debt was paid. 
The tiles were laid, or a lot of them were laid at any 
rate, the barns were built, the home was paid for 
and there was actually money in the bank! The 
writer feels that there are many happy days ahead 
of him, but never again expects to experience the 
relief, the thankfulness, the joy that came to him 
when his first victory was won for Woodland Farm, 
and the brothers fully shared the feeling. 

The writer jumped into his old buggy and drove 
home, his face wreathed in smiles and his heart 
singing a joyous song. As he neared his home tlie 
thought came: ^^Why, I will have some fun with 
the sweetheart. I will make believe the thing has 
ended badly. I will tell her some sort of story to 
deceive her, just at first ; afterward I will undeceive 
her.'' But when he drew near the little cottage she 
stood there in the open door waiting for him to come, 
looking out at him, all unconscious, yet on her face 
was revealed all that the thing meant to her, and his 
heart became suddenly very tender and it came over 
him with a shock of understanding. ' ' Why, I never 
dreamed that the girl cared like this. Did she per- 
haps wonder whether the home would be sold, the 
place where she had planted flowers and vines, the 
place where her babies were born? Where she had 
been so brave, so strong, so patient and helpful all 
these years, and yet cared so much as this!" So 
all his foolish stories were put aside and he told her 
the glad truth. 



34 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

And what had the farm done that year! After all 
the items of sales and expenditure were footed up it 
was found that the same land that had yielded our 
father less than $800 had yielded us a net profit of 
more than $2,500. Alfalfa had worked this miracle. 
It had given us the hay with which to feed the larger 
number of lambs, and through the soil enrichment 
that it had given the fields it had made possible the 
heavy crop of corn that we had fed to the lambs, so 
really to alfalfa should be credited both corn and 
hay. Further, alfalfa had made it possible to con- 
tinue feeding lambs. When we were beginning, and 
were almost without alfalfa hay, we had fed largely 
of oilmeal and wheat bran to balance up the ration. 
This was necessary; experiment proved that. With- 
out plenty of digestible protein in the ration the 
lamb does not gain much. We made good lambs 
through the aid of the bran and oilmeal, but it cost 
us too much. When finally we had our own alfalfa 
hay to furnish protein we made two lots of lambs. 
They had equal merit in the beginning as near as 
we could tell, for they were of the same bunch, se- 
lected to get two like lots. The one pen was fed with 
timothy hay, with some clover, shredded corn fod- 
der, corn, wheat bran and a little oilmeal. They 
grew well, but each pound of gain made cost us Gi/oC. 
The second lot was fed with good alfalfa hay and 
corn only. With them the cost of gain was only 
S^c. As the price of lambs declined during the 
nineties we would have had to give up had not al- 
falfa come to our rescue. 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

At the present writing (1909) we are feeding some 
1,450 lambs, with about 150 ewes and lambs, and we 
could as readily feed 2,000 or more if we had more 
shelter for them. 

Woodland Farm is larger now; the alfalfa has 
crowded the line fences back a little. It contains 
320 acres and is devoted mainly to the growing of 
corn and alfalfa. During the summer of 1908 corn 
was grown on 90 acres of alfalfa sod. This field had 
been twice sown to alfalfa, with intervals 
when it was planted in corn. The last pe- 
riod of alfalfa was a 6 year period for part 
of the land and a longer period for the remain- 
der. During the 6 years there were taken off at least 
20 crops of hay, certainly 20 tons of hay to each acre. 
During this time no manure was put on the field, but 
on parts of it phosphorus was applied in the shape of 
acid phosphate, about 300 lbs. per acre or maybe a 
little more. The great crops of hay taken continually 
off of this field disturbed our mother, who finally 
spoke in sorrowing tones to the writer, thus : ^^ Joey, 
I am worrying about that alfalfa field.'' *^Why, 
mother?" ^^ Because you do not manure it. You 
haul off hay and haul oif more hay and it seems to 
me you actually have hollowed the land out so that 
it is lower than it used to be. I think of what your 
father would say if he could see it. Why don't you 
put some manure on it, boy!" 

I assured her that I could not believe that the land 
was really getting poor, and that we were putting 
the manure out carefully on land that we knew was 



36 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

poor, and she said no more. When we plowed the 
land in the winter of 1908-09 it seemed more mellow 
and friable than usual, so we plowed it deeper than 
it had usually been plowed. And when we disked it 
up in the spring it was most evident that the field 
had changed its character somewhat, so loose, mellow 
and friable it seemed. We resolved to make an ef- 
fort to beat our record for corn raising, so we 
planted with care. The seed was good and had been 
tested. We got nearly a perfect stand over much 
of the field and all summer gave it good culture. 
There was a most serious drouth late in the summer, 
which doubtless cut down our yield somewhat. Yet 
50 acres of that field made for us a little more than 
100 bushels of shelled corn per acre and the entire 
90 acres only fell a little short of making 9,000 
bushels. This result astonished us, as the field had 
in olden times yielded only about half that amount. 
In truth the alfalfa had built it up far beyond the 
fertility that it had had when a ^'virgin soil.'' 

Let us briefly examine this miracle and see how it 
was accomplished. In the first place it is probable 
that this especial field has in it already about as 
much potash as it needs for large crop production, 
since it is a glaciated soil. Most of the field is well 
supplied with lime ; in truth one can find small peb- 
bles of limestone sticking all through the soil. Thus 
it was sweet, and the alfalfa revels in sweet soil, al- 
kaline, not acid. So the alfalfa was at home there. 
Then the land had been thoroughly well under- 
drained; thus it was full of air. Alfalfa bacteria 



INTRODUCTION. 87 

thrive in soils rich in lime and full of air ; they perish 
in a wet sour soil. Thus the alfalfa filled all the soil 
with its rootlets, going down often as far as 6 feet, 
no doubt, and numberless millions of bacteria work- 
ing there were storing the soil with nitrogen drawn 
from the air. The phosphorus supply may have 
been somewhat deficient; we bought phosphorus for 
part of the land and added that. Then the land was 
plowed; the plow cut off millions of those big roots 
and left the top soil one mass of roots, with also 
many little rootlets and many leaves and stems that 
had fallen down. And the subsoil was made porous 
by being honeycomhed by millions of the tap roots, 
so the )air penetrated all the more easily. Thus it is 
seen that conditions for a big corn crop were almost 
ideal. 

It would be an interesting thing to know just how 
much richer Woodland Farm is than it was before 
alfalfa began to grow upon it. It is safe to say that 
the alfalfa, yielding on the average 300 tons of hay 
per year for the past ten years, has added to the soil 
plant food worth at least $3,000 each year, count- 
ing the manure that has been returned and the work 
of the roots; probably this is an underestimate, in 
fact. Once we racked our brains to find manure 
enough, and never did find enough. Now we rack 
our brains again to find time to haul out the manure 
that is made upon the farm. Gathering fertility by 
the use of alfalfa is like rolling a snowball — ^the 
farther you roll it the faster it gathers. This would 
not be true if the hay was sold off of the farm, but 



38 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

it is certainly true when the hay is fed and the 
manure carefully saved and returned, to make an- 
other spot rich for alfalfa to grow upon. 

The story of Woodland Farm is only half told; 
the rest lies in the future. We have some acres that 
yield as much as 6 tons of hay each year, yet the 
average of the whole farm is less than 4 tons. Thus 
we are not yet inclined to boast of our success with 
alfalfa. We now are proceeding to try to spread 
these good yielding areas. What is the secret of the 
lands yielding alfalfa so well? Perhaps we do not 
know the w'hole story, but here is what we can readily 
observe. One of these spots is a round hillock. It 
is a strong, tough, tenacious limestone clay. Stick- 
ing all through that clay are bits of limestone peb- 
bles, as large as grains of corn, as large as a man's 
foot, and of all sizes. These pebbles are of soft mag- 
nesian limestone. They readily decay and keep the 
land very sweet. Alfalfa roots seem to like actually 
to touch carbonate of lime. On that hillock the al- 
falfa never gets old. It is one of the most productive 
spots on the farm. On it our father put much ma- 
nure, for it was, when he bought the farm, extremely 
unproductive. We have not manured here for many 
years. 

On other lands we find the limestone pebbles all 
dissolved away in the surface soil. When we dig 
down two feet we find them in abundance, but on 
the surface there are none. Here we are assuming 
that lime is needed, and are putting on more car- 
bonate of lime, buying ground and unburned lime- 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

stone and applying it at the rate of about 5 tons to 
the acre. Probably that is too little ; it is yet too 
early to know. We feel sure that when we have 
made the drainage right and the lime content right 
we will grow as much alfalfa over all the farm as 
we now grow on those favored spots. Then we can 
proudly boast, sure enough! Then we can say: 
*^From 100 acres of land we harvested 500 tons of 
alfalfa hay.'' It may take time to reach this con- 
dition. It may not even come in my day. But we 
have boys and to these boys we bequeath the ideal, 
the task, and to them will fall the pleasant duty of 
spreading these spots of gloriously beautiful alfalfa, 
rich and productive beyond anything else that could 
be sown. 

It may be of interest to know something of 
the present system of farming on Woodland Farm. 
Let us begin with the alfalfa sod that is to die that 
corn may live. It is plowed usually in November 
and during the winter. Perhaps the field was mown 
off late, four cuttings being taken from it, in antici- 
pation of its impending destruction. We find that 
late cutting is bad for the alfalfa and do not usually 
cut it later than early in September. This field to 
be devoted to corn then will be mown off late, as it 
does not matter how much the roots are weakened. 
Usually we plow with very strongly built walking 
plows. We put two wheels on the beam, well in 
front ; one wheel runs in the furrow, the other on the 
unplowed land. These wheels hold the beam rigidly 
in place, and thus the plow runs well ; a boy can man- 



40 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

age it if the thing is set right. We keep the plows 
sharp. The plowman carries a file and often lifts 
the plow out of the ground and sharpens it well. 
The land is plowed deep, from 7 to 10^', and we hope 
ultimately to plow much deeper than that. We aim 
to get the land all broken before mid-winter, so that 
the frosts may work on it. No manure is used on 
alfalfa sod. It is disked and fitted for corn which is 
planted usually about May 5 in checks. This corn is 
as well cultivated as we know. Often in the early 
part of the season the alfalfa roots will grow, espe- 
cially if the season is wet, and the field will look 
not a little green. This does not disturb us in the 
least, for after the corn cultivation begins the alfalfa 
soon weakens and mostly disappears. Some stray 
plants will escape destruction and will live over, 
even for two or three years of corn. This is all the 
better, since thus the inoculation is safely carried 
over. The corn has as clean cultivation as we can 
give. We discourage weed seeding as much as pos- 
sible. We have learned that that enemy of alfalfa, 
fox-tail or pigeon grass, can be surely eradicated in 
one year by not letting a stalk of it make seed. 

The corn is cut and shocked. Before winter it is 
husked and the folder set up, two shocks in a place. 
We cut our corn 12 hills square ; at present our hills 
are 42'' apart. We find corn to thrive wonderfully 
on alfalfa sod. The second year will usually find this 
land yet in corn. This time as much manure from 
the stables and sheep barns as can be found 
will be put on. Even with this manuring 



INTRODUCTION. 41 

we do not expect quite so good corn as 
we had when we grew it on alfalfa sod. As 
before^ clean cultivation is given. We are especially 
careful to destroy all fox-tail grass before it seeds. 

This land is now to be sown to alfalfa. If it needs 
lime that is applied as convenience suggests, when- 
ever the teams are idle and the land is hard enough 
to drive on. We use finely ground raw limestone 
rock, not burned. We use about 4 tons ^to the acre 
of this. It cost us only $1.25 per ton on cars. The 
land is plowed as deep as the plows will run, making 
the furrows narrow. We would plow 24'^ deep if we 
could do so. Some day no doubt we will begin sub- 
soil work, and expect that to pay well. We like to 
do this plowing a month or more before time to seed 
alfalfa, so that the earth may settle well together 
again. In April we disk and prepare the land with 
some care, but not attempting to make any ^^ash 
heap^' or ^'onion bed,'^ as some advise, only a little 
better seedbed than one would make for corn. 
About April 10 we begin drilling. AVe use a fertil- 
izer drill that sows fertilizer, beardless spring 
barley and alfalfa seed. Of barley we sow 2 bushels 
to the acre; of alfalfa seed, 15 to 20 lbs.; of fertilizer 
(usually plain acid phosphate, sometimes bone meal) 
we use 300 to 500 lbs. per acre. We think it prob- 
able that the more we enrich the land the greater our 
profit is. We let the alfalfa seed fall in front of the 
drill sometimes, at other times behind the drill, ac- 
cording to the condition of the soil. If moist we do 
not roll but follow the drill with a plank drag. If 



42 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the land is dry and cloddy we use a roller to com- 
pact it and to leave the surface smooth so that the 
mower may run over it readily. We do not inocu- 
late, since all the farm is now filled with alfalfa bac- 
teria. The alfalfa comes up with the barley and all 
grow together till the barley has come into head; 
before grain has formed in the heads it is mown off 
and all made into hay. Barley hay is exceedingly 
good hay, though not so good as alfalfa hay, of 
course. After this cutting the alfalfa comes on rap- 
idly and in about 45 days, or a little less, it also is 
cut and a crop of hay taken off. 

We judge of the time to cut this young alfalfa al- 
together by the condition of the growth, not by the 
bloom. When small shoots appear at the base of the 
stems, down by the ground, as though it was ready 
to make a new growth, then it is to be cut, and not 
before that time. If cut before these shoots or buds 
appear, the alfalfa is very greatly weakened and 
sometimes is destroyed. After this cutting the alfal- 
fa is left religiously alone; it is never pastured nor 
mown nor tramped in any way during the fall or win- 
ter. The fall growth of about a foot or a little more 
is worth a very great deal to the plant, in some way 
or another ; it helps hold the snow and makes it win- 
ter better. The next year the alfalfa shoots out as 
soon as the frost is out of the earth. 

Alfalfa fields are sacred ground on Woodland 
Farm, and never unless by accident is an animal per- 
mitted to tread upon them. It is especially im- 
portant that no stock go upon them in the spring 



INTRODUCTION. 43 

when tiie young alfalfa is pushing up ; even though 
the alfalfa might be destined for pasture everything 
is kept off until it has made good growth, and is 
nearly knee high and almost come into bloom before 
stock is turned in. Gloriously beautiful the fields be- 
come in May, and as June draws near we watch them 
to see how nearly they are approaching harvest. 
We have long ago learned not to regard the bloom- 
ing of the alfalfa as 'being an essential indication of 
maturity, but only we suspect that it is ready for 
cutting. We get down upon our knees in the field, 
and parting the stems look to see whether small buds 
have appeared at the surface of the ground. If 
these buds or shoots are pushing out, showing that 
the plant is ready to make new growth, then the 
mowers come out, three of them, each cutting swaths 
6' wide, and with merry rattle the beautiful green 
forage is laid low. 

Not much use is made of the tedder on Woodland 
Farm, since it shatters off the leaves too much, al- 
though sometimes it is employed when the crop is 
very succulent and heavy. Before the alfalfa is dry 
enough for the leaves to shed off, the rake is started 
and the hay gathered into small windrows, which 
are then piled into slender but fairly tall cocks by 
the use of the hand fork in the old-fashioned way. 
Eather a jolly time haymaking is, with all the men 
and boys on the place busy in the field, with merry 
callings to and fro and sometimes the note of a song, 
yet it is a busy place too. Seldom can the hay be 
drawn in the same day as it is cut down, and not al- 



44 ALFALFA FAEMING IN AMERICA. 

ways on the next day^ but as soon as it is dried it is 
placed on broad; low-platform wagons, each bed 16' 
long and 7' wide, with tight board floors; and taken 
to the barn where it is unloaded by horse forks. The 
farm possesses 7 of these wagons, so that each even- 
ing it is the daily duty to load up the 7 wagons with 
from 10 to 14 tons of hay, which are then drawn un- 
der shed ready to be unloaded in the morning. Not 
much is doing in the alfalfa meadows in the fore- 
noon; then is the time chosen for work in the corn 
fields, and cultivators are pushed steadily. These 
two crops, corn and alfalfa, constitute almost all that 
is grown on Woodland Farm, excepting a few acres 
of soy beans and the blue grass pastures, but as the 
alfalfa is cut three times during the season, and the 
corn cultivated at least five times, there is no dif- 
ficulty in keeping everyone busy. 

The writer makes no apology for having devoted 
so much time to the operations on Woodland Farm, 
since he feels that in a sense this is a pioneer farm, 
and fairly prophetic only, of what will be very com- 
mon throughout all the region of the corn belt. Very 
certainly these two crops, corn and alfalfa, are by 
far the most profitable of any, and do most conserve 
the fertility of the soil, do best nourish all manner of 
farm animals, do most surely build the fortunes of 
the farmer. Deeply buried in the soil of the fields, 
the alfalfa roots know nothing of the vicissitudes of 
winter; as certainly they put out green as leaves up- 
on the oaks in spring, and drouths that wither up 
ordinary meadows have little effect upon them. 



mTRODUCTION. 45 

Wheat, oats, potatoes, timothy grass and a hnndred 
other things are uncertain, affected vastly by the 
vicissitudes of the weather. Alfalfa once rooted in 
dry rich soil has the permanence of the wild native 
things. Corn also planted upon alfalfa sod well cul- 
tivated mocks at seasons, for floods affect it not, 
since the land must perforce be well drained, and 
drouths and heats that sear other vegetation pass it 
by, leaving it fresh, green and undismayed. These 
two crops then are destined not to free the farmer 
from labor, for they bring abundant labor to him, 
but to take away from him the cares and perplexi- 
ties incident to the growing of uncertain things. 



HISTORY. 

The world is very old. For more ages than we 
dream men have lived and loved, toiled, sown and 
reaped. The history of the race is written in the 
form, variation and characteristics of animals and 
plants much more than in tablets of stone or pieces 
of clay. Would you ask how long men have lived 
on earth! Ask when first hornless cattle were kept. 
Records in Egypt show them to have been common 
thousands of years before the time of Christ. 
Ask when sheep were first tamed and their fleeces 
developed. The very race of wild sheep has per- 
ished from the face of the earth and the sheep of 
Abraham's day were highly developed. Ask when 
wheat was taken from being a wild grass and made 
a cultivated plant; when the banana ceased to have 
seeds; the apple gathered sweetness and the vine 
began to hang down with luscious clusters of pur- 
pling grapes. Ask, too, when it was that animals 
became the subjects and friends of men; when men 
began to feed them, to gather forage for them, to 
cultivate plants for them, to perceive which plants 
were the best plants and which best fed the animals. 
Ask, too, when men first saw that soils grew worn, 
that certain plants fed soils, that other plants caused 
them to become infertile. 

(46) 



HISTORY. 47 

All these things happened many thousands of 
years ago. The best things done by men are older 
than recorded history. The taming of the ass, the 
taming of the horse, the taming of the cow, the devel- 
opment of the milk-giving powers of the cow, the 
caring for sheep and goats, the breeding of sheep for 
wool, the spinning of wool and flax, the melting of 
ores — all these primal things happened long 
centuries ago. Since historic times man has 
learned very little indeed that iie needed to 
know; the important, primal, essential things were 
all worked out before men began to write upon stone 
and upon parchment. 

It is not certain that there exists today any wild al- 
falfa. There are places where some has escaped from 
cultivation and gone wild, but all alfalfa, so far as 
known, has so changed its form from what it would 
be in the wild state that it is doubtless bearing in its 
nature the very marked signs of the moulding hand 
of man. For example, all alfalfa so far as known 
today needs to be cut off from time to time to keep 
it in thrift. No wild plant requires that. Alfalfa 
that we know reflects a long line of civilizations, re- 
flects the habits of people who have kept cows and 
donkeys and sheep and horses, kept these and fed 
them, carrying their forage to them on men's backs 
for ages untold. It requires no effort of the imag- 
ination when looking out upon an alfalfa field to 
picture the fields from which it sprung through the 
ages past. The little fields fair and green and fertile 
under hot glowing desert skies mostly. Little fields 



48 alfaLtFa farming in America. 

for the most part walled often with walls of stone 
or of snn-dried bricks, lined with little canals of 
cool water with overhanging trees, fig trees or al- 
monds or palms, and brown men and women, lithe 
and strong, coming to cut the green meadow with 
curved sickles and scythes, gathering it in sheaves 
and carrying it on their backs through gates in the 
walls to the animals eagerly awaiting it in the en- 
closed corrals or stables. Alfalfa was developed in 
dry regions. It came, very likely, from southwest- 
ern Asia through Persia to Arabia, whence it got its 
name alfalfa, which simply means the best forage. 
The Persians grew it finely. Down along the rivers 
of Babylon in ancient Babylonia alfalfa was a stand- 
ard crop, most likely. Those river valleys are rich 
in lime and alkaline in their reaction, admirably 
suited to alfalfa culture, and there under irrigation 
alfalfa undoubtedly throve. The one reference to 
alfalfa in the Bible is found in the fourth chapter 
of the book of Daniel where in the thirty-third verse 
it is related of the king : 

"The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: 
and he was driven from men, and did eat grass [alfalfa] as 
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his 
hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's 
claws. And at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up 
mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned to me, 
and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that 
liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and 
His kingdom is from generation to generation." 

The truth probably was that old Nebuchadnezzar, 
rich, spoiled, feasted and wined till he became in- 
sane, was turned out to graze in an alfalfa field till 
on this simiple and nutritious diet his body was re- 



HISTORY. 49 

newed, filled witli liealtli and vigor, when liis reason 
returned and of course he did what an3^ healthy man 
will do daily, blessed the Most High and praised 
Him and was humbled and glad once more. 

It is related that in the old kingdom of Babylonia 
wheat would yield 200 fold and sometimes 300 fold, 
which plainly indicates that it must have been sown ' 
thinly in drills upon alfalfa sod, irrigated from the 
canals with which that country abounded, and prob- 
ably weeded and cultivated by slave labor. 

About 500 years before Christ the Persians invad- 
ed Greece. Now, Greeks are stubborn folks, or were 
in those days, and many were the battles before the 
Greeks were even in part conquered. The Persians, 
aided by Greek factions and tribes, doggedly toiled 
steadily onward, taking city after city. Wherever 
they went they had chariot horses to feed and cattle 
— bulls, so legend says — for fighting, and cows no 
doubt for helping feed the army. With curious mix- 
ture of martial and agricultural zeal they brought 
with them alfalfa seed and wherever they conquered 
foothold they sowed alfalfa. An army travels, and 
fights, on its belly, so it was a mighty help to the 
Greeks to have the aid of the alfalfa. And without 
doubt it was eaten by the soldiers as well, since green 
succulent alfalfa has always been boiled and eaten 
as greens or pottage. Unhappily the Persians 
sent away hosts of the Greek subjects as slaves to 
Asia, else when they had gone on the people might 
have been almost benefited by the war, since alfalfa 
fields were left in the wake of the army. It must be 



50 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

remembered that much of the land of Greece is 
formed from the decay of limestone and marble. 
Thus filled with carbonate of lime it is naturally 
fitted for alfalfa culture as well as for the production 
of such magnificent men as the Greeks undoubtedl> 
were. 

From Greece alfalfa spread into Eome, just when 
we do not know. The first real farm books were 
written in the first century after Christ. One L. 
Junius Moderatus Columella, born in Spain but liv- 
ing most of his life in Italy, wrote twelve books 
which he called '^De Re Rustica.'^ These books 
were written about the year 56 A. D. It would seem 
from dipping into the pages of Columella that about 
as much was known then of agriculture as is known 
today. Indeed, they knew then many things that 
we do not know today, and agriculture has lost many 
picturesque details by the pruning away little by 
little of agricultural fancies, by the accumulations of 
stern facts. 

But however much we may smile at some of Col- 
umella's account of ancient Roman agriculture, we 
will respect him for his account of alfalfa and the 
way to grow it. Many forage crops are mentioned 
by Columella — medic (alfalfa), vetches, bitter vetch, 
chick pea, barley, oats and wheat. 

Speaking of the various sorts of fodders he says 

the herb medic (alfalfa) is the choicest, because 

when it is sown it lasts ten years. He continues : 

It can bear to be cut down four times, sometimes also six times 
in a year, because it dungs the land. All emaciated cattle what- 



HISTORY. 51 

soever grow fat with it because it is a remedy for sick cattle, 
and a jugerum of it is abundantly sufficient for three horses the 
whole year. It is sown as we shall hereafter direct. About the 
beginning of October cut up the field wherein you design to sow 
medic next spring and let it lie all winter to rot and grow crum- 
bly. Then about the first of February plow it carefully a second 
time and carry all the stones out of it, and break all clods. After 
about the month of March plow it the third time and harrow it. 
When you have thus manured the ground, make it in the manner 
of a garden, into beds and divisions ten feet broad and fifty feet 
long, so that it may be supplied by water with paths and there 
may be an open access for weeders on both sides. Then throw 
old dung upon it and sow in the latter end of April. Sow it in 
such a proportion that a cyathus of seed may take up a place 10 
feet long and 5 feet broad. After you have done this, let the 
seeds that are thrown into the ground be presently covered with 
earth with wooden rakes. This is a very great advantage to them 
because they are very quickly burnt up with the sun. After 
sowing, the place ought not to be touched with an iron tool, but 
as I said it must be raked with wooden rakes, and weeded from 
time to time lest any other kind of herb destroy the feeble medic. 
You must cut the first crop of it somewhat later, after it has put 
forth some of its seeds. Afterwards you are at liberty to cut it 
down as tender and as young as you please after it has sprung up 
and to give it to horses, but at first you must give it to them 
more sparingly until they be accustomed to it, lest the novelty 
of the fodder be hurtful to them, for it blows them and creates 
much blood. Water it very often after you have cut it. Then 
after a few days when it shall begin to sprout weed out of it all 
plants of a different kind. When cultivated in this manner it 
may be cut down six times in a year and it will last ten years. 

That instruction bears evidence of muc'li famil- 
iarity with the alfalfa plant. It must not be cut too 
soon the first time, not till some seeds have formed. 
It is true here that young alfalfa is destroyed often- 
times if cut before the young shoots have put out 
at the base of the stems. Not having observed this 
perhaps the old alfalfa growers judged by the state 
of bloom or seeding when it should be cut. Note that 
Columella says '4t dungs the land." Thus early 
they knew the practice of farming with legumes, 



52 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and that alfalfa was the best of the legumes for this 
purpose of enriching soils. 

Note too that he found it a good food for horses. 
It is said that the chariot horses were fed on alfalfa 
hay, and the colts destined to become war horses 
were raised largely on it because it made them 
larger, heavier and more impetuous. 

From Italy alfalfa naturally spread wherever the 
Eoman farmer colonist penetrated, through France^ 
Spain, England and doubtless Germany. It may be 
that Spain also received alfalfa from Africa through 
the Moors. The name alfalfa comes from the Ara- 
bic and means the best forage, and this name the 
Spanish people adopted. Through the introduction 
of the plant in America by the Spanish colonists 
and our taking it from them on our Pacific coast we 
get the name alfalfa. In France, England and most 
other European countries, and in Utah and formerly 
through all our eastern states, the name lucerne is 
in common use. This name comes from a river val- 
ley in northern Italy. 

Alfalfa throve in Italy, in much of Spain and in 
parts of France. Where it throve no other forage 
plant could compete with it. It was introduced long 
ago into England and there it throve in spots. It 
was much extolled by some, its planting advised, 
yet it never became common and today is seldom 
seen in extensive use on the British Isles. It was 
brought to America in two ways, from Spain to 
Mexico, Peru, Chili, Argentina., from Mexico to 
Texas, New Mexico and California; later from Chili 



HISTORY. 53 

to California in 1851, which marked the really im- 
portant step in alfalfa growing in America. 

The other source was the bringing of lucerne seed 
to the eastern states of America from England, 
France and Germany early in the history of Ameri- 
can colonization. In the eighteenth century many 
men were experimenting with lucerne in Virginia, 
New York, North Carolina and doubtless other 
states. Some of them succeeded quite well and 
many of them doubtless failed. We know now the 
reason why many failed. Then the behavior of lu- 
cerne was a mystery to the farmer. We had not 
learned then the intimate connection between alka- 
linity of soil and presence of abundant carbonate of 
lime and alfalfa culture. It is all very easy to ex- 
plain this now — how alfalfa came from alkaline soils 
rich in lime down in Persia, into the alkaline plains 
of Babylonia, to the limestone soils of Roman lands, 
to the soils of Greece built on marble decay, to the 
limestones of southern France, to the alkaline soils 
of semi-arid north Africa, to the soils rich in lime 
and alkalies in Spain, thence to similar soils, yet 
richer in lime, in Mexico, Chili, New Mexico and Cal- 
ifornia. In England soils vary immensely as regard 
their lime content. Some are very rich in lime ; on 
these lucerne throve : in others lime is very deficient ; 
here it failed. In France there is found a similar 
variability, so also there were found areas that grew 
good lucerne, and others that grew none at all. In 
eastern America, on the other hand, nearly all soils 
were from the first settling of the country deficient 



54 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in lime and thus unfitted for alfalfa. Yet the soils 
as our fathers found them were sweeter than they 
are today, and thus we often hear old men relate 
that in their boyhood their fathers grew lucerne and 
that their daily task was to cut it and feed it to the 
cows ; this on land that will not today unaided grow 
alfalfa at all. 

In reading over the written accounts of how to 
grow lucerne published in the last century one is 
amazed to find how much the authors knew of the 
habits of the plants, and as much astonished to per- 
ceive that few if any of them understood the vital 
connection between alfalfa and a large percentage 
of carbonate of lime in the soil. One of the good old 
books on agriculture is ^'The Dictionary of the 
Farm/^ by the Eev. W. L. Eham, Vicar of Wink- 
field, Berkshire, who died in 1843. The article on 
lucerne is strikingly good, so good, indeed, that had 
the author known two facts of which he seems to 
have been unaware there would have been left little 
to add. He evidently had not traced the relationship 
between thrifty lucerne and a strong lime content in 
the soil, nor had he seen the harm that comes to 
lucerne when it is mown off too early, before it has 
made sufficient growth to start the little shoots at 
the base of the stems. Ignorance of the latter fact 
is very universal in England at the present time and 
leads to much lack of thrift and falling away of the 
alfalfa plants that are usually cut with the scythe 
bit by bit, and fed to horses green, just as Eham 
advised. The writer has indeed pointed out to Eng- 



HISTORY. 55 

lish farmers that the lower sides of their lucerne 
fields remained thrifty after the upper ends were 
half destroyed, just because of the fact that the man 
with the scythe commenced on the upper end before 
it was time to cut the immature plants, and by the 
time he had reached the bottom of the field it was 
sufficiently mature, so remained in vigorous condi- 
tion. 

The article follows from ''Eham's Dictionary of 
the Farm," published in 1853: 

Lucerne is a plant which will not bear extreme frost nor super- 
abundant moisture, and its cultivation is therefore restricted to 
mild climates and dry soils; but where it thrives its growth is so 
rapid and luxuriant that no other known plant can be compared to 
it. In good deep loams lucerne is the most profitable of all green 
crops; when properly managed the quantity of cattle which caiL 
be kept in good condition on an acre of lucerne during the whole 
season exceeds belief. It is no sooner mown than it pushes out 
fresh shoots, and wonderful as the growth of clover sometimes 
is in a field which has been lately mown, that of lucerne is far 
more rapid. Where a few tufts of lucerne happen to be, they 
will rise a foot above the surface, while the grass and clover 
which were mown at the same time are only a very few inches 
high. 

Lucerne, sown in a soil suited to it, will last for many years, 
shooting its roots downwards for nourishment till they are alto- 
gether out of the reach of drouth. In the driest and most sultry 
weather, when every blade of grass droops for want of moisture, 
lucerne holds up its stem, fresh and green as in a genial spring. 
The only enemies of this plant are a wet subsoil and a foul sur- 
face. The first is often incurable; the latter can be avoided by 
good cultivation. 

It is useless to sow lucerne on very poor sands or gravel or on 
wet clays. The best and deepest loam must be chosen, rather 
light than heavy but with a good portion of vegetable earth or 
humus equally dispersed through it. If the ground has been 
trenched, so much the better; and if the surface is covered with 
some inferior earth from the subsoil it will be no detriment to 
the crop, for it will prevent grass and weeds from springing up 
and save much weeding. The lucerne will soon strike down W 



56 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

low it. It is not a bad practice to cover the lucerne field with a 
coat of coal ashes or poor sand, merely to keep down the weeds, 
where this can easily be done. 

The soil in which it is intended to sow lucerne seed should be 
well prepared. It should be highly manured for the two or three 
preceding crops and deeply ploughed, if not trenched. It should 
be perfectly clean, and for this purpose two successive crops of 
turnips are most effectual. The turnips should be fed off with 
sheep. In the month of March, the land having been ploughed 
flat and well harrowed, a very small quantity of barley, not above 
a bushel to the acre, may be sown, or rather drilled on the 
ground, and at the same time from 30 to 40 lbs. of lucerne seed 
sown broadcast and both harrowed in and lightly rolled. If 
the land will not bear to be laid flat without water-furrows, it 
will be useless to sow lucerne in it. 

As the crop comes up it must be carefully weeded: no expense 
must be spared to do this effectually, for success depends upon 
it. When the barley is reaped, the stubble, which will probably 
be strong, should be pulled up by tne hand hoe, or by harrowing, 
if the plants of lucerne be strong, and at all events the ground 
must be cleared of weeds. It must not be fed off with sheep; 
they would bite too near the crown. Lucerne should always be 
cut as soon as the flower is formed. If it is kept clear of weeds 
the first year, there will be little difficulty with it afterwards, 
when the roots have become strong. The second year the lucerne 
will be fit to cut very early, and in a favorable season it may be 
cut four or five times. After each cutting it is useful to draw heavy 
harrows over the land, or an instrument made on purpose resem- 
bling harrow teeth, the teeth of which are flat, and cutting the 
soil like coulters. It will not injure the plants, even if it divide 
the crown of the root, but it will destroy grass and weeds. Liquid 
manure, which consists of the urine of cattle and drainings of 
dunghills, is often spread over the lucerne immediately after 
it has been mown, and much invigorates the next growth; but if 
the land is rich to a good depth this is scarcely necessary. The 
lucerne will grow and thrive from seven to twelve years, when 
it will begin to wear out, and, in spite of weeding, the grass will 
get the upper hand of it. It should then be plowed up, all the 
roots carefully collected and laid in a heap with dung and lime 
to rot, and a course of regular tillage should succeed. The same 
land should not be sown with lucerne again in less than ten or 
twelve years, after a regular course of cropping and manuring. 

Cattle fed upon lucerne thrive better than on any other green 
food. Horses in particular can work hard upon it without any 
corn, provided it be slow work. Cows give plenty of good milk 



HISTORY. 57 

when fed with it. In spring it is apt to purge cattle, which with 
a little attention is conducive to their health. If it is given to 
them in too great quantities, or moist with dew, they run the risk 
of being hoven. These inconveniences are avoided by giving it 
sparingly at first, and always keeping it twenty-four hours after 
it is cut, during which time it undergoes an incipient fermenta- 
tion, and the juice is partially evaporated: instead of being less 
nutritive in this state, it is rather more so. 

An acre of good lucerne will keep four or five horses from 
May to October, when cut just as the flower opens. If it should 
get too forward, and there be more than the horses can consume, 
it should be made into hay; but this is not the most profitable 
way of using it, and the plant being very succulent, takes a long 
time in drying. The rain also is very injurious to it in a half 
dry state; for the stem is readily soaked with moisture, which 
is slow in evaporating. The produce in hay, when well made, is 
very considerable, being often double the weight of a good crop 
of hay. 

Many authors recommend drilling the seed of lucerne in wide 
rows, and hoeing the intervals after each cutting. This is the 
best way with a small patch in a garden, and when only a little 
is cut every day; but in a field of some extent, the lucerne, when 
once well established and preserved free from weeds by hand 
weeding the first year, will keep all weeds down afterwards, and 
the heavy harrows with sharp tines, used immediately after mow- 
ing, will pull up all the grass which may spring up. No farmer 
ought to neglect having a few acres in lucerne on his best land. 

Note carefully that Eham says, ''If the ground is 
trenched so much the better, and if the surface is 
covered with some inferior earth from the subsoil it 
will be no detriment to the crop.'' The fact is that 
earth from the subsoil often, in fact usually, has in 
it much more lime than surface soil, so that bringing 
it up is sometimes equivalent to a fairly good liming. 

It is a little difficult to explain the general neglect 
of alfalfa in England, since there are many soils 
there admirably suited to it and almost any of the 
well-drained English soils would now grow it well if 
they were well limed and enriched with even bare 



58 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

mineral fertilizers. It may be the uncertain weather 
of British hay-making times has had a deterrent 
effect to the alfalfa growers, though it would seem 
more probable that the mere lack of knowledge of 
the subject was the main factor responsible for the 
fewness of alfalfa fields there. The writer has seen 
as thrifty alfalfa in Kent as he has seen anywhere 
in the world, and has marvelled at its small extent 
till he was told that the entire crop was fed green to 
the work horses. 

In America a number of men wrote enthusiastic- 
ally of the lucerne plant. It is certain that George 
Washington grew it at least to some extent, and 
Thomas Jefferson, on a kindlier soil, grew it so well 
that in one of his letters he mentions the joy that 
contemplation of his fields of lucerne gave him. To- 
day no alfalfa is grown on either of these farms, nor 
in their neighborhood. Is it that eastern farms are 
less fertile now, or is it that their owners are less 
prudent, enterprising and careful? 

In New York Robert Livingstone wrote of it and 
many men experimented with the plant, some with 
success, some without. In few localities in the east- 
ern states, however, did it gain a permanent foot- 
hold. There were several reasons for that. One 
principal reason was that alfalfa does not mature 
seed along the Atlantic seaboard except during very 
dry summers ; thus it was necessary to import fresh 
seed from Europe constantly at considerable trouble 
and expense. Then the plant's nature was not un- 
derstood, its lime requirement was not known, much 



HISTORY. 59 

land was badly drained and fields were ruined by 
not being cut at the proper time. Thus the enthu- 
siasts gradually became discouraged and it became 
a settled belief that lucerne could not profitably be 
grown in eastern America outside of a few re- 
stricted neighborhoods. As indicating the sentiment 
of the friends of alfalfa in those days we quote a 
letter published in the ^ ' American Farmer ' ' of 1823, 
the letter copied from the ^'New Brunswick Times.'' 
The method of sowing advised is curious, to sow in 
the spring with fall rye, and there may be a hint in 
this for others living today in similar conditions. 
Note the excessive price of the seed — 50c per lb., or 
$30 per bushel. The letter written by ^' A New Jer- 
sey Farmer ' ' follows : 

It may materially promote the interests of agriculture to offer 
through the medium of your paper a few remarks on the culture 
of lucerne. This article (frequently denominated French clover), 
I have found by experience to be not only one of the most con- 
venient; but also the most profitable of any grass which can be 
cultivated. It vegetates quicker in the spring than any other 
grass, it resists the effects of drouths, it may be cut four or five 
times in the course of the season, and it will endure for at least 
twelve years without being renewed. Of all other grass it is the 
most profitable for soiling. I am fully of opinion that one acre 
properly got in would be sufficient to maintain six head of cattle, 
from the first of May until November, for before it can be cut 
down in this way, the first part of it will be reacfy for the scythe. 
English writers, have recommended the drill system for this arti- 
cle, but in this climate I have found this to be entirely fallacious. 
The proper mode to be adopted is to have your land in good order, 
to sow it broadcast, and to get the seed in during the month of 
April or May. The plan I would recommend would be to sow 
fall rye at the rate of 15 to 20 pounds to the acre with it. The 
effect of this is that the rye vegetates quickly, and serves as a 
nurse to the young grass against the heat of the scorching sun, 
and by the time the grass attains sufficient strength to protect 
itself, say in four or five weeks, the rye withers and apparently 



60 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

dies. In the spring, liowever, tlie rye will again come forth 
mixed with lucerne, will add much to the quantity on the ground, 
and prove a most excellent feed for cattle. The rye cut green in 
this way and before getting into seed will admit of being cut 
two or three times in the course of the season, with the lucerne 
before it decays. 

The kind of soil most suitable for this culture is a dry mellow 
loam, but a sandy or clay loam will also answer, provided it is 
not wet. In a favorable season, the lucerne may be cut the next 
fall after sowing. After the first season you may generally be- 
gin to cut green for cattle by the first of May, which saves your 
young pasture and is in every respect a very great convenience, 
as hogs and every description of animals devour it with equal 
avidity. Backward as this season has been, I have been furnish- 
ing a copious supply every day to seven cattle, since the 5th of 
May. The seed can be procured at Thornburn's or other seed 
stores in New York, at 40 to 50c per pound. 

The following notes on the culture of alfalfa and 
sainfoin are from a book called ^'Practical Farmer" 
published in 1793 by John Spurrier and dedicated to 
Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Spurrier was a transplanted 
English farmer. It is curious to note how nearly 
he came to knowing how to grow each of these crops, 
and how vitally he failed to grasp the truth that 
these plants thrive on ''gravels" when these gravels 
are composed of limestone pebbles, not necessarily 
when they do not! This quotation is presented 
through the courtesy of J. M. Westgate : 

Saintfoin took its name from the French; for the word Saint- 
foin, translated into English, is Holy-Hay, which name they gave 
it from its excellent nutritive quality. 

There may be more benefit reaped from this grass than any 
other; as you may get a very great crop in the most dryest land, 
on hills, gravels, sands, or even barren ground; and it will so 
improve all those lands in such an extraordinary manner that 
they will bring great crops of any sort of grain after it. 

The stalks of the plant in poor land will be two feet high, and 
in rich land it will grow as high as six feet. It has tufts of red 
flowers, of three, fn^r^ or five inches in lensfth of thfi honey, 
suckle kind: they are so beautiful and sweet tliat 1 Have seen 



HISTORY. 61 

them much esteemed in a garden and called the French honey- 
suckle. 

This plant will make twenty times the increase in poor ground 
than the common turf; and this is owing to its having a long 
perpendicular root called tap roots, as well as numbers of hori- 
zontal ones; the perpendicular ones sink to a great depth to at- 
tract its nourishment. The length of this root is scarce to be 
credited by any but those who have seen it; I have drawn it out 
of the ground near fourteen feet; and some have told me that 
they have traversed it to double that length. This is the reason 
I presume why this plant will bear drouth, when all other 
grasses have been burnt up by the excessive dryness of the sea- 
son. I have at one cutting got two tons of this hay per acre. 

Cold, clay, or wet land is not suitable for this grass, as it would 
chill and rot the roots. The long root of Saintfoin has near the 
surface many horizontal roots issuing from it, which extend 
themselves every way; there are of the same kind all the way 
down, as the roots go, but they grow shorter and shorter all the 
way. 

Any dry land may be made to produce this valuable and use- 
ful plant, though it be ever so poor; but the richest and best 
land will produce the greatest crops of it. 

The best method of sowing it is by drilling, but the earth must 
be very well prepared and the seed well ordered, or else very 
little of it will grow. The heads of these seeds are so large and 
their necks so weak, that if they be above an inch deep, they are 
not able to rise through the incumbent mould, and, if they are 
not covered, they will be malted; that is, it will send out its root 
while it lies above ground, and be killed by the air. 

The best season for planting it is the beginning of spring; and 
it is always strongest when planted alone. 

If barley, oats, or any other grain sown with the saintfoin, 
happen to be lodged afterwards, it kills the young saintfoin. The 
quantity of seed to be drilled or sown broadcast upon an acre of 
land will depend wholly on the goodness of it; for there is some 
seed, of which not one in ten will strike; whereas, in good seed, 
not one in twenty will fail. The method of knowing the goodness 
is by sowing a certain number of the seeds, and seeing how many 
plants are produced by them. If it is above two years old, it 
will not grow. The external signs of the seed being good are 
that the husk is of a bright color rather of a purple, and the 
kernel plump, of a light grey or blue color. If the kernel be cut 
across, and appear greenish and fresh, it is a certain sign it is 
good. If it be of a yellowish color, and friable, and looks thin 
and pitted, it is a bad sign. The quantity of seed allowed to the 



62 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

acre in the drill way is much less than by sowing broadcast. A 
bushel of seed to an acre of land is 20 seeds to each square foot 
of land if sown broadcast, which would be sufficient; but there 
must be an allowance made for casualties. 

The quantity of good seed I have found by experience is for 
sowing broadcast, two bushels, and for drilling, one bushel. And 
as the saintfoin does not cover all the ground the first year, 
which spaces are generally occupied by weeds, to remedy this, 
when I have sown it broadcast, I have sown four or five pounds 
of clover seed with it to the acre, which has answered a very 
good purpose, as I have then had a crop the first year. 

The saintfoin is but a slow grower at first; the second year 
perhaps will not exceed a clover crop, but afterwards it increases 
every year for six or seven years before it comes to its full per- 
fection; and as that increases, the clover goes off, and makes room 
for it. 

This valuable plant will keep in perfection for twenty years, if 
you only give it a slight top dressing with soot or ashes, once in 
four or five years. The first summer, nor early the next spring, 
it should not be fed, because it will be apt to bleed itself to 
death; for the sweetness of it is such, that it will entice cattle 
to bite into the knot in the ground and spoil it; but afterwards, 
when it has gathered strength, the best method will be to mow 
the first crop, and seed it after, which is excellent for cows and 
sheep. 

This plant, as well as trefoil, will not thrive in a wet moist 
soil; and as saintfoin thrives best on high grounds, it is a great 
advantage in the article of making it into hay, as it has greatly 
more advantage of the sun, and less to fear of mischief from wet, 
than grass which grows in low grounds. On the high grounds, 
the wind will dry more in an hour than it will in meadows that 
lie low in a whole day; and often the crops of saintfoin make a 
very good hay in the same seasons in which all the grass hay is 
spoiled. The sun on the high grounds has also a more benign 
infiuence, and sends off the dew there two hours earlier in the 
morning, and holds it up as much longer in the evening; by 
these advantages the saintfoin has more time to dry, and is made 
with half the expense of common hay. 

Saintfoin for hay should be cut when it is half blossomed, and 
managed the same as before directed for clover. If saved for 
seed, it must be the first cutting. You may know when it is ripe 
by the seeds coming out easily in your hand. Dry it in the field, 
and thresh it there on a cloth, as it will shed and you will lose 
great part of the seed if yon carry it to the barn. The straw 
will be as good as hay for horses; and the hay, when it has been 



HISTORY. 63 

well got in, my horses that have worked hard have been kept on 
it alone without any grain, have been so fond of it that they have 
refused beans and oats mixed with chaff in the common way for 
it. Sheep also will be fatted in pens in winter, with only this 
hay and water, better than with corn, peas, oats, and the like. In 
short, there is no hay that is made is equal to it, and the produce 
will be double that of clover. The land where it is sown should 
be very clean from weeds, under a fine tilth; which is best done 
by a turnip fallow. 

Lucerne is the plant which the ancients were so fond of under 
the name of Medica, and in the culture of which they bestowed 
such great care and pains. Its leaves grow three at a joint, like those 
of the clover; its flowers are blue, and its pods of a screw-like 
shape, containing seeds like those of the red clover but longer 
and more kidney shaped, and the color all yellow. The stalks 
grow erect, and after mowing they immediately grow up again 
from the parts where they were cut off. The roots are longer 
than the saintfoin, and are not single, but some times they run 
perpendicularly in three or four places from the crown. 

It is the only plant in the world whose hay is equal to the 
saintfoin for the fattening of cattle; but its virtues in that re- 
spect are very great. It is the sweetest grass in the world, but 
must be given to cattle with caution, and in small quantities, 
otherwise they will swell, and incur diseases from it. 

Though the common methods of husbandry will not raise 
lucerne to any great advantage, yet the drilling and the horse- 
hoe husbandry will raise it, annually increasing in value to the 
owner, and make one of the most profitable articles of his busi- 
ness. 

The soil to plant it on must be either a hot gravel, or a very 
rich and dry land that has not an under stratum of clay, and is 
not too near springs of water. The natural poorness of gravel or 
sand may be made up by dung, and the benefit of the hoe, and 
the natural richness of the other lands, being increased by hoe- 
ing and cleansing from grass, the lucerne will thrive with less 
heat; for what is wanted in one of those qualities must be made 
up in the other. 

The best season for planting of it is early in the spring, the 
earlier the better; for then there is always moisture enough in 
the earth to make it grow, and not too much heat as would dry 
up its tender roots, and kill it after the first shootings. About 
a pound and a half of seed will be enough for an acre. 

The planting it in autumn in some climates might do; but 
here the winters are too cold, which would kill great part of the 
tender plants, and greatly stunt and injure those it does not kill. 



64 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The number of the lucerne plants should he less than those of 
saintfoin to an acre, because they grow much larger in this way 
of management, and each occupies a greater space of ground, and 
produces a larger quantity of hay. 

The quick growth of this plant requires that it should have 
large supplies of nourishment, and good room to grow in; and it 
is better in all things of this kind to err in setting the plants too 
far distant, than In setting them too near. 

The most fatal diseases incident to lucerne are starving and 
smothering; for this reason good cultivation is necessary to it, 
and the often turning the earth with the hoe all about it. By 
this means, a plant that in the common way of sowing would not 
have been more than eight or nine inches high, will be four or 
five feet, and will spread every way so as to produce a quantity 
of hay, more like the cutting of a shrub than a plant. 

The plants should stand at five inches distance in single rows, 
and the intervals between these rows must be left wide enough 
for the use of the hoe plough, (if managed according to the 
horse-hoe husbandry) ; but if hand hoed, one foot between the 
rows will do: for which I will refer you to my experiments on 
fallow crops, where you will find that by this method I had at 
the rate of four tun lucerne hay per acre. But lucerne sown in 
drills so near will in a few years meet in the rows, which will 
hinder the mould being stirred, when it will starve for want of 
nourishment, and thereby wear out. 

Lucerne is of much quicker growth than saintfoin, or any 
other grass. I have cut it four times in a season, whereas the 
others are seldom cut above twice. 

Lucerne is to be made into hay, the same as saintfoin or clover; . 
but this must be observed, that it is always to be cut just before 
it comes to flower. It is a fine food, if cut for the cattle green, 
it is so sweet and full of nourishment but it must be kept clean 
from natural grass, as that soon choaks and kills it. 

Of tlie introduction of alfalfa into the Pacific coast 
region we have less recorded. Naturally the people 
of Spanish blood, settling California from Mexico, 
brought their favorite farm seeds with them, seeds 
of their best suited farm crops; among these was 
alfalfa. Not much alfalfa was grown in California 
by the Spanish colonists, enough probably to give 
them credit for the introduction there, as they cer- 



HISTORY. 65 

tainly must claim credit for its introdnction into 
southwestern Texas and pro'bably into New Mexico 
and perhaps into Arizona. 

It took the keen prophetic insight of tlie Ameri- 
can, however, to see in the alfalfa plant the wonder- 
ful possibilities that lay within it. Gold was discov- 
ered in California in 1847 and immediately began a 
great rush for that land. Many men went by the 
long route ''around The Horn." In Chili a good 
land and fertile, with well developed agriculture, 
ships tarried often for a little time. The passengers 
wearied with the long sea voyage took themselves 
with delight to the fields. There they saw alfalfa 
for the first time. Some of them took seed of it with 
them to California. Others sent back there for seed 
and sowed it in California, land of promise. Cali- 
fornia proved to have suitable soil and climate, and 
alfalfa throve there astonishingly. Gold could not 
always be found with pick and shovel, it could with- 
out fail be found by alfalfa roots. For the first time 
in its history alfalfa became a great crop and men 
began to plant it largely, to talk of it and write of it. 

Probably no one knows more of the early history 
of alfalfa in California than E. J. Wickson, Director 
of the California experiment station and dean of the 
agricultural college. My letter to him containing 
questions and his answers thereto is presented : 

I am delighted that you will undertake to help me in my alfalfa 
investigations. I know of no man better fitted than you. The 
points I particularly wish to know are not very difficult of answer. 

Question: On what date did the real introduction of alfalfa in 
California take place, and where was it sown? 

A.nswer: I have record of sowing alfalfa by W. E, Cameron, 



66 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

near Marysville in the Sacramento Valley in 1851, who continued 
until he had 270 acres in 1858. 

Question: What was the source of the seed? 

Answer: From Chili and the plant was called Chili clover until 
its Spanish name alfalfa was taken up. It was some time later 
when its botanical identity with lucerne was known. 

Question: Were there many alfalfa fields or patches in use by 
the Mexicans, or earlier Californians, prior to the occupation by 
the United States? 

Answer: I never heard of any. Introduction is believed to 
have been by Americans from Chili with which country there 
was much trade and where stops were made coming round The 
Horn. 

Question: What is the oldest alfalfa field that you know of to- 
day, and about how many years? 

Answer: I have no definite instance. The plant on good soil- 
that is free soil where no root injury comes from standing water 
— is counted upon for more than 20 years of profitable growth. 

Question: About what percentage of carbonate of lime exists in 
the most productive alfalfa soils of California? 

Answer: We are now growing alfalfa on nearly all productive- 
soils, the acreage on the heavier soils, formerly held to be un 
suitable, increasing every year. The average lime in California 
soils (average of 262 analyses) is 1.25%. 

Question: What would you consider an average yearly pro- 
duction per acre of alfalfa hay? 

Answer: Five tons. 

Question: What is the maximum that you have known? 

Answer: I cannot be sure but think it has gone up to 12 tons. 

Question: We hear very astonishing stories of long alfalfa 
roots; how long a one have you actually seen measured, or had 
knowledge of that you considered authentic? 

Answer: 24 feet but others claim up to 30 feet. 

Concerning Henry Miller's alfalfa I wrote in 
^'The Breeder's Grazette'' in September of 1900 as 
follows : 

Away back in 1850 there landed in San Francisco a lad with 
fifty cents in his pocket, a brave heart and a determination to 
work and succeed in this new world. He went to work in a 
butcher shop. Soon he had a small shop of his own. Then it 
was a large shop. Then he bought, in 1858, a little land on which 
to hold some cattle. In 1860 he bought land in the San Joaquin 



HISTORY. 67 

Valley. It was dry semi-arid land. Some of his associates won- 
dered what he would do with it. He bought more. After a time, 
I think in 1872, he took out a canal to water it. In 1873 he im- 
ported some alfalfa seed from Chili. He sowed 7 acres, a large 
operation at that time. Gradually the holdings of land and of 
cattle increased. Today the firm owns about a million of acres 
of land, most of it in California. They have about 100,000 head 
of cattle. They have about 120,000 sheep. This growth all repre- 
sents the profit made in growing, killing and selling cattle and 
sheep. 

Henry Miller is one of the wonderful men of our time. He is 
one of the men with foresight and faith. His manager, Mr. 
Schmitz, of the Poso ranch at Firebaugh, has been with Mr. 
Miller for thirty years. He told me many incidents that showed 
the kind of stuff of which the man is made. Here is an instance: 
When the water was out Mr. Schmitz was instructed to irrigate 
and sow barley. The land was not prepared for irrigation. Mr. 
Schmitz and his Irish laborers knew little or nothing of the art. 
They had a tremendous time of it. Mr. Schmitz lived night and 
day in the fields, trying to manage the elusive water. The crop 
was a fair one, but netted a loss of some $2,000. Mr. Schmitz re- 
ported and asked to be allowed to resign. "What for?" asked 
Mr. Miller. "Well, it does not pay. I would not mind working 
if I could see that it was a success," he replied. "See here, Mr. 
Schmitz, suppose you look after the work and let me do the 
figuring," said Henry Miller. 

When alfalfa proved the success that it did the solution of the 
problenq. was in sight. After that it became a simple matter of 
steadily enlarging the areas of irrigated lands, of alfalfa fields, of 
cattle. Today on Mr. Schmitz's division of Poso farm of 160,000 
acres there are 20,000 acres of alfalfa. There are 25,000 acres of 
irrigated native grasses. He cuts 15,000 tons of alfalfa hay. He 
grows 50,000 sacks of barley and 5,000 sacks of Egyptian corn. 
.His tenants grow some 100,000 sacks of wheat and 20,000 sacks of 
barley. 

Poso farm carries about 25,000 head of cattle. It has about 
40,000 sheep and ships about 5,000 hogs each year. 

Do those figures make you dizzy? Well, I will not deal much 
in figures from this time on. You can get the idea that it is 
not merely a ranch, a farm, but almost a state, certainly a prin- 
cipality in itself. If there is anything like it in the world I 
have not heard of it. We rode up the great weir in the San 
Joaquin River, whence the canal starts that leads off westward 
and divides the watered land from the dry. A lovely river is the 
San Joaquin at this time of the year. Calm, neither hurrying 



68 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

nor loitering, it sweeps on toward the bay, flowing under cool 
shadows, stretching out wide over shallower reaches, and em- 
bracing tree-embowered islands. It bears water enough to make 
a garden of the entire valley, could it be held back until needed. 
The canal is large enough for steamships at the head; it divides 
after a time, and divides again and again as needed, until there 
is a vast network of ditches, hundreds of miles, so much that 
Mr. Schmitz declined to even guess the total length. Italian 
laborers take the water from the ditches and spread it over the 
land. Dikes, following the contours, make it spread over all. 
The alfalfa fields are irrigated three times each season. There is 
so large an area to water that it is not practical to get over them 
oftener than that, yet it would doubtless be better if it could be 
done. And the cattle graze the alfalfa, except that one crop is 
taken from the field and made into hay for winter feeding. 

Alfalfa grows rank over here. It is the best that I have yet 
seen in California. The cattle thrive on it as a matter of course. 
They are careful not to turn hungry cattle on alfalfa pasture. 
They must be first filled up with hay or grass. After once be- 
coming accustomed to green alfalfa they are never taken away, 
so do not get hungry, gorge themselves and bloat. That seems 
the explanation of it all. They graze it with many thousands, 
yet lose hardly any at all. And sheep are treated the same way. 
I never saw such lambs as these alfalfa lambs. They are born 
early, in February generally, and they run on the alfalfa until 
they go to the butchers. Often their mothers are fat enough to 
go also in a short time after the lambs are taken away. The 
herder merely restrains them from roaming about over the fields 
and trampling down too much at a time. The alfalfa is not 
grazed short, there is no chasing the sheep away after they have 
eaten a little, there is no running them about to keep them from 
bloating; they are simply gotten used to it and left alone until 
they get fat. And the loss is very light indeed. Shropshire rams 
are mostly used. The ewe flocks are largely kept up by purchase 
of range ewes. The increase reaches as high as 120%. The 
quality of the Miller & Lux cattle is very good — much better 
than the average. Very many registered and more pure-bred but 
unregistered Short-horns are used, but the California idea pre- 
vails that a Short-horn is not good unless he is red. And, by the 
way, there are no Short-horns in California; there are only 
"Durhams." This term is also used in Utah and Nevada. At 
present the cattle are kept until they are three and four years 
old. The Q-uestion of early maturity seems to have been little 
considered. 

I saw them dipping cattle as a preventive of Texas fever. The 



HISTORY. 69 

dipping vat Is made exactly on the model of a sheep-dipping vat. 
It is about 75 feet long and the cattle are put through very 
rapidly and without loss. The lime and sulphur dip is used, to 
which a quantity of crude petroleum is added. This certainly 
destroys the ticks if any exist and for a time keeps off the flies. 
As to the ultimate benefit, as they are put back on supposedly in- 
fected pastures, I think it a matter of experiment. It costs about 
five cents to dip a steer. It makes a few orphan calves, that is 
the worst of the practice. About 3,000 can be dipped in a day 
at one of these plants. The getting of the cattle to the dipping 
vat is the main part of the work. As a matter of dipping, this 
is entirely successful. None of the loss or difficulty that the Gov- 
ernment dipping experiments reported are encountered here. And 
I have no doubt that the dipping removes the ticks. 

Winter feeding is carried on here in an immense way. There 
is quite an elaborate plan of procedure. In order to understand 
it you must consider two propositions: one that the hay has in 
it more or less of "foxtail" grass, which has on it disagreeable 
barbs, and that it is desired to mix with the hay a very small 
amount of grain. The problem is to get rid of the danger of the 
foxtail, and to mix four pounds of ground barley with some 30 
pounds of alfalfa hay and make a ration for a steer. All the hay 
is cut through great Ross cutters, then it is put on the floor of 
the great feeding barn and wet down. This barn holds no cattle. 
Then the ground grain is mixed with it. It stands for about 
forty-eight hours, until it becomes soft and slightly fermented, 
then it is taken out and fed. It is in the same condition as 
alfalfa silage. The cattle thrive better on 34 pounds a day of 
this ration than on 50 pounds of uncut alfalfa fed out of doors 
on the ground. That is what these men believe, and who will 
argue against so much experience? But the amount of labor in- 
volved would stagger an ordinary mind. Imagine handling 12,000 
tons of alfalfa in this way, as Mr. Schmitz must do on his own 
farm. The amount of grain fed in proportion to hay is very 
small, it would seem. Yet the hay is of prime quality; it is as 
rich as hay can possibly be. 

The method of making hay on this ranch is interesting. It is 
cut and raked with ordinary tools. It is then caught up by 
large buck rakes on wheels that carry about 700 pounds to the 
stack. It is lifted by a great sling, and swung over the rick by 
a sort of crane. Or it is loaded on wagons and hauled farther and 
lifted by a Stockton fork. These forks are 5, 6 or 7 feet long; 
they take up enormous loads and are distinctly better than the 
harpoon or grapple forks used East. I mean to have one on our 
own ranch and one in Ohio. The ricks are not left sharp, and 



70 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in our wet Ohio climate would spoil badly. The haymakers ar* 
largely Italians; the irrigators are Italians. Spaniards do some 
of the work. Basques do some of it, Mexicans do a part, Portu- 
guese do a part, Chinese do the cooking and gardening. Ameri- 
cans do a little of everything, and are often foremen. Mr. 
Schmitz speaks three or four languages, and finds them almost 
indispensable. Things must go wrong very often on such a vast 
ranch; there must be perplexities and vexations enough to vex 
a saint. Think then how convenient to have three or four lan- 
guages in which to express your disapprobation with things in 
general and the case in particular! 

This much for one man's fortunes as built on al- 
falfa roots. But other men were awakening to the 
value of the plant. 

Soon it spread over much of California, and 
thence eastward into Utah where it was called lu- 
cerne and where it throve as well as it could thrive 
anywhere on earth. In Utah were many sm.all farm- 
ers, careful men, keeping cows and horses and pigs 
with poultry and bees. To these men alfalfa was a 
god-send. The Mormon farmers began to cut alfalfa 
for seed. From Utah seed nearly the whole west has 
been planted. Colorado took alfalfa next; fields of 
good size were being sown in 1886 when first the 
writer traveled through that state. A little later 
alfalfa suddenly sprang into great prominence in 
Colorado. By its ability to enrich soils and make 
lands fit for potatoes, beets or any other thing it 
came into great favor. A hundred villages in Colo- 
rado are built upon the alfalfa plant. Alfalfa is 
more to Colorado than all her gold, all her silver, all 
her wheat or sugar or forests. To take away alfalfa 
from Colorado would destroy the very foundations 
of her prosperity and nothing known upon the earth 



HISTORY. 71 

could possibly replace this rich, beautiful and won- 
derfully useful plant. 

From Colorado alfalfa came naturally into Kan- 
sas, beginning to be an important factor there about 
the year 1894. At first it was grown only along the 
Arkansas river, and in the dryer parts of the state. 
Gradually it overspread nearly all of Kansas, being 
of most importance on the richer, dryer, sweeter 
soils. Nebraska followed Kansas in taking up alfal- 
fa growing. Along the Platte River it established 
itself strongly and in the western part of the state, 
while gradually, surely its roots penetrated nearly 
every part of the state. East of the Missouri Eiver 
alfalfa made slow progress. Iowa grew a little, Mis- 
souri on her alluvial soils along the Missouri 
and Mississippi rivers planted fields and gradually 
the growth extended. Illinois undertook alfalfa cul- 
ture in 1898 or earlier, but as yet the industry there 
is hardly more than in its experimental stage, some 
men having made notable success, but many having 
failed. Wisconsin grows much alfalfa, having soils 
well drained and rich in lime. Minnesota began its 
culture in 1857 when Wendelin Grimm came from 
the little village of Kulsheim, Germany, bringing 
with him a little bag of alfalfa seed from his old 
home in the Grand Duchy of Baden. This was the 
"ewiger klee'' or everlasting clover of Grimm, and 
from that day to this in Carver Co., Minnesota, al- 
falfa has been grown. Indiana attempted alfalfa 
culture and the experiment station published a bul- 
letin charging that alfalfa was not particularly 



72 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

adapted to that state. In later bulletins this mis- 
taken idea has been co^rrected. Alfalfa is now grown 
with much profit in many parts of Indiana and only 
that many fields yet are waiting to be limed, drained 
and enriched is all that prevents Indiana growing 
at least a million tons each year. 

Alfalfa culture in Ohio came probably with the 
efforts of the writer and his brothers, as detailed in 
the introduction to this book. Pennsylvania pub- 
lished a bulletin in 1904 detailing how to grow al- 
falfa and since then much has been done in prelim- 
inary work of experimentation and it is now known 
that alfalfa will grow almost anywhere in that state 
where the land is drained, limed and enriched. Mary- 
land grew alfalfa during colonial times and a few 
farmers kept it up in a small way till this day. To- 
day alfalfa is grown in every county of the state and 
with the new knowledge of the lime requirement for 
alfalfa, its culture is now on a sure footing and the 
crop is destined to be one of the most important in 
the state. New Jersey, once in colonial days grow- 
ing it well, has suffered a relapse yet there are many 
men over the state succeeding with it, and when the 
need of lime and drainage is understood, doubtless 
New Jersey will also grow large areas of this beau- 
tiful forage. Director Edward B. Voorhees of the 
New Jersey experiment station has done notable 
work in teaching the essentials of alfalfa culture 
and especially in calling attention to the marvelous 
power of alfalfa to enrich land when the crops are 
fed and the manure applied. 



HISTORY. 73 

In New York alfalfa has been grown continuously 
for over a century. The following notes on the early 
history of alfalfa in New York, by F. E. Dawley, 
are of value and interest : 

From 1791 to 1800, Mr. Robsrt Livingstone, of Jefferson county, 
New York, conducted some experiments, many of which were 
successful, and from investigations made in the vicinity of Le- 
Raysville, in that county, I feel certain that there are still grow- 
ing wild there alfalfa plants which are descended from his orig- 
inal plantings. Following these experiments, the next that I am 
able to get any authentic record of are those made about 1812 
in Onondago county by Sterling Lamson and Moses Dewitt, and 
in Jefferson county by Ezra L'Hommedieu. About four miles 
west of Cedarvale, in this county, a few scattered plants have 
been growing for years on a side-hill, which I believe came from 
the seeding made by Mr. Lamson, as I can get no record of its 
having been planted in that vicinity until within the past ten 
years, and these scattering plants have been known there for at 
least forty years. In a diary kept by this man in 1815, the state- 
ment is made about alfalfa, that it grew so coarse that the ani- 
mals would not eat it dry and that it was very dangerous in 
pastures because of producing bloat. In 1851 a cask of alfalfa 
seed was distributed among members of the American Institute 
and many patches were grown in New York, New Jersey and 
Connecticut. 

In 1865 in this section there was great interest in bee-keeping. 
A man by the name of Rosenkranz traveled all over the country 
selling rights for using the Langstroth bee hive and giving in- 
struction in bee-keeping. He had traveled extensively on the 
Pacific coast and had become greatly interested in alfalfa as a 
bee-food. Among the bee-keepers in this section who were in- 
duced to try alfalfa were my father, Wm. Dawley, James Patter- 
son, Charles Phillips, William A. House, who lived on the farm 
which I now own, and many others. In the western part of the 
state those who tried alfalfa were not very successful, although 
Mr. Phillips had a remarkably good stand at one time. I be- 
lieve that all of them sowed it too thinly and that the proper 
bacteria were not present in sufficient quantities to make it a 
success. One of these experimenters sent to California for a 
bag of seed, which was shipped to him in the hull, being very 
dusty and foul. From this lot of seed, however, sent about 1870, 
on the farm which I now own can be traced, I think, the origin 
of successful alfalfa growing here. 



74 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

A. little later than this Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, who had 
charge of the state experiment station at Geneva and was very 
much interested in alfalfa growing, recommended its planting 
quite largely and many fields were put out. The failures in this 
state outnumber the successes greatly; still in the townships of 
Onondago, Dewitt, Geddes and Manlius, Onondago county, and 
Sullivan in Madison county, there are to be found many acres 
of very successful growth, and on high lands in these counties 
four-fifths of all the hay cut last year was alfalfa. 

At the present writing alfalfa is being grown con- 
siderably over nearly the whole of the state of New 
York, but chiefly in the limestone regions of central 
New York, its greatest use being probably in Onon- 
daga county. There is much limestone in New York 
and the farmers are generally intelligent and enter- 
prising. It would seem that as soon as they realize 
that by abundant use of carbonate of lime, making 
their soils somewhat like those alkaline soils of Colo- 
rado and California, they can grow alfalfa as well as 
the West, and that alfalfa in New York is worth fully 
double what it is in the West, they will take the mat- 
ter up in serious earnest and spread its culture fast 
and wide. 

It is interesting to know that in old Virginia, where 
once George Washington and Thomas Jefferson vied 
with each other in growing lucerne, there are now at 
least 'two great farms growing alfalfa in hundreds 
if not thousands of tons as is done in the West, and 
perhaps more interest is shown in alfalfa culture in 
Virginia at this time than in any other state alon^ 
the Atlantic seaboard. 

Of the southern states Alabama, Mississippi, Ark- 
ansas and Louisiana are doing most with alfalfa, 



HISTORY. 75 

Louisiana perhaps leading. Alfalfa revels in alluvial 
soils rich in lime. These soils are found along the 
deltas of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Red rivers. 
A great per cent of the state of Louisiana is adapted 
to alfalfa growing once it is drained and the soil 
made ready., Mississippi has alluvial '^bucksho't" 
soils along the western side and limestone black soils 
along the eastern side. In each of these soil types 
alfalfa thrives. It is a remarkable fact that lands 
that can be bought for $25 to $50 per acre in these 
states will grow four tons of alfalfa hay per acre 
and the hay is worth at present writing $20 per ton. 
Albama has similar limestone soils and is doing well 
with alfalfa thereon. The common upland soils of 
Alabama will grow alfalfa when well limed and en- 
riched and it is thriving in many places where right 
preparation has been made. 

With all this encouraging evidence of the spread 
of alfalfa culture there remains much to be done. 
Not one acre in a thousand is made ready for alfalfa 
that should be made ready. Think of Iowa with her 
wide fields of maize, steadily growing less and less 
fertile because of the drain made upon them ; think 
of her herds of cattle, her sheep, her cows and swine 
all craving alfalfa to balance up a ration too exclu- 
sively, corn. Think of Illinois, her high priced lands, 
her fields famed for riches but their fertility steadily 
diminishing, her need of foods rich in protein, her 
need of soil building. And Indiana with her poorer 
soils and smaller farms needs alfalfa on every farm 
she possesses, and Ohio needs it more with her thou- 



76 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sands of dairy farms and her sheep farms and pig 
breeding farms. The same is true of Pennsylvania 
and New York, only the need is greater, for the 
farther east one goes the higher priced is hay and the 
more wheat bran is bought to furnish protein to 
make milk or grow animals. 

All over America just now there is a quickening of 
the agricultural life. Men are awakening, gaining 
new courage, new hope. The young have higher as- 
pirations than ever before; farming is coming out 
from the ruts; it is no longer a disgrace to be a 
farmer. The best brains and best thought and best 
blood of the land are being devoted to agriculture. 
Alfalfa comes at opportune time. It fits in on every 
farm, once the soil is made right. It is a permanent 
thing. It is a mine of riches, a magazine of rich 
provender, a source of fertility wherewith to build 
animals and to build other soils. 

Alfalfa brings hope, courage and joy. It brings 
beauty to field and landscape. It covers over the 
scars made on the face of Nature, it stops the waste 
of erosion and soil leaching. Where it comes boys 
cease leaving the farm, bees come, and birds; the 
cows stand tranquil with full udders, land values 
advance, paint comes to the country school-house 
and happy children trudge along the lanes with well- 
filled dinner pails. 

And is it practical to grow alfalfa over all this 
region? It is practical. Alfalfa is one of the sim- 
plest and easiest things grown in the world. It is 
one of the hardiest plants known, one of the most 



HISTORY. 77 

responsive. It is absolutely easy to grow alfalfa. 
There are no longer any mysteries about it. To teach 
the way so plain that anyone can follow and no one 
longer will fail is the purpose of this book. 

The writer is very earnest in this purpose. He 
repeats absolutely it is true that every farmer may 
have his alfalfa field if he has soil with water level 
down 36", or soil that may have the water level so 
lowered, and soil not entirely composed of peat. 
Sands, clays, alluvial soils, all alike yield to the 
magic of alfalfa, all alike robe themselves in living 
green, all alike yield rich forage and are in turn en- 
riched themselves by the alfalfa growing upon them. 
There are keys to unlock the m.ost stubborn soils. 

Today we have those keys. No longer should any 
man fail to make alfalfa grow. The day of ' ' experi- 
menting'' with alfalfa is over. The day of surely 
growing it has come. If any man will read carefully 
the plain directions in this book, will read and heed, 
he will grow alfalfa, whether he is in Maine or Mas- 
sachusetts, Dakota or Dahomey. 



VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 

The botanical name of alfalfa is Medicago sativa. 
It belongs to the class of plants called legumes. Its 
relatives are the clovers, the peas, beans and locust 
trees. There are thousands of kinds of leguminous 
plants in the world and most of them have some use. 
Some provide food for men, as the peas and beans ; 
some provide forage for animals; all or nearly all 
have the power to enrich soils. There are more than 
50 rather near relatives to the alfalfa plant. Some 
of them are annuals, some are biennials and some 
are perennials. Of them all only six have come into 
general use as forage plants, and of these only one 
or two have much merit. The descriptions following 
are from Prof. G. F. Freeman of Kansas : 

Alfalfa {Medicago sativa, Linn) is an upright, much hranched 
smooth or slightly pubescent perennial plant one to three feet 
high. The branches arise from a rather woody base which 
crowns a long tap-root. This root with its branches may extend 
three to twelve, or, in rare cases, even fifteen feet deep, rendering 
this species very drought-resistant on account of its being able 
to bring up water from the subsoil far beyond the reach of ordi- 
nary plants. The leaves are arranged alternately on the stem 
and are trifoliate or three-parted, each part being slightly broader 
above the middle and usually tapering each way, although the 
apex may be frequently rounded, blunt, or even slightly notched. 
The pea-like flowers, varying in tint from pale, almost white, to 
deep reddish purple, are arranged in rather elongated loose 
clusters borne on the ends of the many branches. The pods are 
spirally twisted through one to three complete curves, forming a 
coil one-fourth to one-fifth inch in diameter. This pod contains 
from one to eight seeds. The seeds are kidney-shaped, about one- 
eighth of an inch long and a little more than half as wide 

(78) 



VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 79 

From an agricultural standpoint this species is by far the most 
important, being probably the most widely grown and most valu- 
able forage plant in the world. 

Yelloiv lucerne or Swedish clover (Medicago falcata) is a 
perennial plant strongly resembling alfalfa, but it differs from 
alfalfa in being of somewhat lower, more spreading habit and 
having bright yellow flowers. It is a native of northern Europe, 
extending into Sweden and probably far into northern Siberia. It 
shows greater cold resistance than the ordinary alfalfa and is 
less liable to winter-killing. This species is probably identical 
with the yellow Siberian alfalfa recently introduced by Prof. N. 
E. Hansen of South Dakota. 

8and lucerne (Medicago media Pers.). "There has been a dif- 
ference of opinion among European botanists in regard to the re- 
lationship of sand lucerne to other lucernes or alfalfas, viz., Med- 
icago sativa (ordinary alfalfa) and Medicago falcata (yellow lu- 
cerne.) Alefeld and other botanists unite common alfalfa, sand 
lucerne and yellow lucerne into a single species. Some botanists 
look upon alfalfa and yellow lucerne as distinct species and con- 
sider sand lucerne as a hybrid between them. Others regard 
them all as distinct species. The three forms, however, differ so 
widely in agricultural value and other characters that they can- 
not be treated together." 

"The ordinary distinguishing characters between alfalfa and 
sand lucerne are easily recognizable when the two are grown side 
by side." 

"The stiff habit of alfalfa differs from the more spreading 
habit of sand lucerne. The flowers of the former are bluish to 
violet purple, while those of the latter range from bluish and 
purple to lemon yellow, with many intermediate shades. The pods 
of alfalfa are coiled in about two turns, while those of sand 
lucerne are in about three-fourths of one coil. The seeds of the 
sand lucerne are lighter than those of alfalfa. Five hundred seeds 
of sand lucerne weigh from 0.8 to 0.9 gram, while the same number 
of seeds of common alfalfa weigh from 1 to 1.037 grams." 

"Sand lucerne, although a perennial like alfalfa, is not so pro- 
ductive in lands sufficiently moist for the latter or where it is 
hardy." 

However, in non-irrigated land in parts of Wisconsin and in 
Utah it is said to surpass any other variety except the Turkestan. 
In the moist climate of Michigan and in the irrigated land of 
Utah, on the other hand, it was much inferior lo the ordinary 
sorts. Seedsmen advertise it as being hardier, more drought- 
resistant and better able to stand grazing than alfalfa, and say 



80 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. . 

that it will succeed on sandy soil which is too light to product 
profitable crops of other forage plants. 

Yellow trefoil or Hop clover {Medicago lupulina L.) is an 
annual species and may be distinguished from aifaifa by its more 
spreading habit, its shorter and broader tipped leaves, by its yel- 
low flowers, and, finally, by the fact that the pods are not coiled, 
as with alfalfa, although coiled to make a single incomplete spiral. 
These pods also differ from those of alfalfa in being black when 
ripe. This species has some value in moist regions, but is far 
inferior to alfalfa. 

Bur clover (Medicago denticulata Willd.) and Spotted Medic 
(Medicago arabica All.), like yellow trefoil, are also annual 
plants and have yellow flowers. They differ, however, from all 
of the above-mentioned species in having burry pods. , Although 
grown in some localities, they are of little agricultural conse- 
quence. 

Bur clover inoculates land for alfalfa growing 
or vice versa. They carry the same bacteria on their 
roots. Mellilotus, or sweet clover, also uses the same 
bacteria. This fact is useful since it often enables 
us to get hold of inoculated soil, or to sow one of 
the inferior clovers as a forerunner of alfalfa for 
the purpose of inoculating the soil or of enriching it 
and storing it with humus. 

Types and Varieties. — Alfalfa is remarkably vari- 
able. One can go into a field sown all of one sort of 
seed and select in it a hundred plants, no two having 
very close likeness. Much can be done and will be 
done to select varieties having desirable character- 
istics. Already the Colorado and Kansas experi- 
ment stations are doing considerable in this line, 
while other stations not so well located are also at 
work, notably Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota, 
and the Department of Agriculture at Washington. 

Natural selection, -or the law of the survival of the 
fittest, has done much to create types. For example, 



VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 81 

alfalfa fLat has grown for some generations in hot 
Arizona becomes by elimination a type adapted to 
hot climates, and alfalfa grown for several genera- 
tions in Montana or North Dakota becomes also by 
elimination, and perhaps to some extent by muta- 
tion, a strain able to endure extreme cold. 

The practical lesson to be drawn from this vari- 
ability of alfalfa is that it is best to choose seed com- 
ing from a region in about the same latitude as one^s 
own farm. Alfalfa from Arizona is not hardy in 
Nebraska. Alfalfa from Montana would doubtless 
do poorly in Arizona. Alfalfa from California has 
not always proved hardy in the East. Alfalfa from 
France and Germany usually succeeds in the east- 
em States of America. When it fails it may be that 
the seed came from Algeria, up through France, 
and thus was in nature similar to the Arizona strain. 

Commenting on varieties J. M. Westgate, ag- 
rostologist in charge of alfalfa, investigation for the 
United States Department of Agriculture, says: 

Under most conditions, especially in the alfalfa districts, or- 
dinary alfalfa, whether from American or European grown seed, 
gives quite as satisfactory results as any of the special varie- 
ties. In certain sections of the country, however, special varie- 
ties of alfalfa have been found to be more valuable than the ordi- 
nary forms. Of these the Turkestan, Arabian, and Peruvian 
varieties have been introduced through the Office of Foreign 
Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 

Turkestan alfalfa was introduced into the United States in 
1898, and has since been tried in all parts of the country. It 
has been found to be superior to the ordinary alfalfa in only lim- 
ited sections. It is decidedly inferior in the humid sections east of 
the Mississippi River, but has given somewhat better results 
than the ordinary alfalfa in the semi-arid portions of the Great 
Plains and in the Columbia Basin. In addition to its drought 



82 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

resistance, it is also hardier than many of the commercial 
strains. 

Hardy alfalfa. — There have appeared during the past years 
several strains of alfalfa which are characterized by their hardi- 
ness and general ability to withstand conditions which are 
rather too severe for the best productions of ordinary alfalfa. 
There is some variation in the characteristics of these alfalfas, 
which may be grouped under this general head, but they agree 
in showing a considerable diversity in the color of the flowers, 
which varies from yellow to blue, green, and various shades of 
violet and purple. These colors are often clouded with a smoky 
hue. The predominating color is the violet of the ordinary 
alfalfa. The most conspicuous examples of hardy alfalfa are 
the commercial sand lucerne and the Grimm alfalfa of Minnesota. 

The sand lucerne has been grown for a number of years in 
this country. It has recently been found to be adapted to the 
colder and drier sections of the country, where it is proving the 
equal of any of the alfalfas under test. It seems particularly 
adapted to withstand the cold winters of the northern states, 
where ordinary alfalfa is very likely to winterkill. It is not 
always the heaviest yielder in sections where ordinary alfalfa 
succeeds, but its yields are always satisfactory, and it is espe- 
cially recommended for conditions where ordinary alfalfa does 
not succeed by reason of high altitudes, light rainfall, or severe 
winters. Its chief drawback is its tendency to lodge. 

The Grimm alfalfa, which has been grown for many years in 
Minnesota with excellent success, was brought from Wertheim, 
Province of Baden, Germany, in 1857, by a German farmer named 
Grimm. It is claimed by some that this variety has attained in- 
creased hardiness since its introduction into Minnesota. 

Dry-land alfalfa is the name usually given to ordinary alfalfa 
seed produced for one or more generations in the semi-arid sec- 
tions without irrigation. It is proving somewhat superior to ordi- 
nary alfalfa under semi-arid conditions, and as a drought- 
resistant alfalfa is about equal to Turkestan alfalfa and sand 
lucerne. 

Arahian alfalfa is proving of special value in the southwest- 
ern portion of the United States, where the winters are very mild. 
It is characterized by its large leaflets and the hairiness of the 
stems and leaves, quick recovery after cutting and very rapid 
growth during the growing season, and also by its ability to 
grow at cooler temperatures than ordinary alfalfa. On the other 
hand, it is extremely tender to actually freezing temperatures and 
generally winterkills in all except the southarrs and south western 



VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 83 

states. Its quick recovery after cutting and its longer growing 
season enable several more cuttings per season to be obtained 
than are possible for the ordinary alfalfa. Unfortunately, seed 
of this variety is not yet on the market. 

Peruvian alfalfa is similar to Arabian alfalfa, and is likewise 
characterized by its long growing season and lack of hardiness. 
It grows taller than Arabian alfalfa, but the stems are more 
woody. The seed is not yet on the market in this country, as it 
is not grown in Peru or elsewhere in large commercial quanti- 
ties. 



HABIT OF GROWTH. 

Alfalfa is a plant with marvelous root growth. It 
is not unusual to find alfalfa roots penetrating 6', 8', 
or even 12' into the earth. Very much deeper roots 
than these are reported. It is even said that alfalfa 
roots have been found that were 30' or more in 
length, and doubtless this is true in favoring soils. 
Alfalfa is a desert plant by nature. All desert 
plants root deep and root far. By aid of these deep 
roots desert plants tide over long drouths; if there 
is no moisture in the top soil there is perhaps 
moisture lower down. Alfalfa is a wonderful for- 
ager for moisture and for plant food. It loves deep, 
permeable soils. Because its roots penetrate so 
deeply into the earth it does not thrive when the 
water table of the soil is too near the surface. 
Permanent water ought to be down at least 36'' for 
alfalfa to thrive and if it is to last for many years 
even more depth is needed. 

Alfalfa Not a Grass. — Alfalfa is in no sense a 
grass. It has no communistic ideas whatever. 
Each alfalfa plant is a vigorous, hustling, independ- 
ent individual. It pushes its roots down, sometimes 
in one large tap root, sometimes in two or three large 
roots. It fills the earth with its hairy feeding roots. 
It makes a branching crown of many stems. The 
deeper the roots can penetrate the larger the crown 
will be. The better the soil for alfalfa the fewer 

(81) 




ALFALFA SIX WEEKS FROM SEED, SHOWING ROOT TUBERCLES. 
FROM LIFE BY EDNA HOPKINS. 



HABIT OP GROWTH. 85 

plants will stand on the gronnd. One by one the 
weaker plants will be crowded out till at last the 
strongest plants will gain their normal position 
when there will be a plant for each square foot of 
surface in very deep, rich soils of the West, and 
these big plants with roots as large as one's ankle; 
or there will be four or more plants to the square 
foot, as in good land in Nebraska or Kansas; or 
there will be a plant for each 4'', as, in thinner, 
poorer and shallower soils in Ohio and the East. 
Alfalfa roots will not stand close together in any al- 
falfa sol], be sure of that. Nevertheless it is good 
to start them thick, since spare alfalfa plants are 
better than weeds in the field. 

Roots. — Alfalfa roots are very tough, strong and 
hard to cut. Penetrating the soil so deeply they 
make drainage channels when they decay and thus 
make the soil more alive. They are hard to plow. 
Once cut off they do not sprout again, though the top 
part if kept in moist earth will send out new fibers 
and may grow. Alfalfa is not hard to destroy by 
plowing; once cut off and cultivated a few times it 
dies. 

The large roots are not the ones that feed. The 
small fibrous root hairs penetrate each tiny crevice 
of the earth and absorb the soil moisture and thus 
drink in their food. Groing to great depths they are 
able to bring up mineral substances that may have 
leached down there. They are able to find moisture 
when the surface soil is parched with drouth. 

The Bacteria.— A]f 8i\f a roots absorb all that is in 



86 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the soil in tlie way of nourishmeiit, but what they 
find is not enough to satisfy the ambitions of the 
alfalfa plant. Therefore it calls to its aid a host of 
tiny slaves, the bacteria. All clovers have useful 
bacteria that live upon their roots and gather nitro- 
gen from the air. Then when the bacteria die the 
nitrogen is taken up by the plant and made into its 
tissue, into its leaves, stems and seeds. These bac- 
teria live primarily for themselves, fastening to the 
little root hairs. Soon these little root hairs push 
out tissue and enclose the bacteria in fleshy ex- 
crescences shaped like little grapes or seeds. These 
excrescences we call tubercles or nodules. They are 
as large as clover seed or larger, or smaller. They 
occur singly or in masses. Sometimes soils seem 
naturally full of these bacteria so that as soon as 
the alfalfa is sown they come on the roots. When 
this is true the alfalfa starts off with great vigor 
from the beginning and endures in thrift nearly al- 
ways. At other times soils are found to be barren 
of these bacteria and no nodules form upon the roots. 
Then the alfalfa seems half starved, weak, yellow, 
sickly. 

Where Bacteria Thrive.— In some soils it is im- 
possible to establish these bacteria by artificial trans- 
plantation or otherwise. When this is true alfalfa 
will never thrive. It may live for a time by aid of 
manures and cultivation, but it is not thrifty and it 
finally succumbs. It cannot withstand the onslaughts 
of weeds without the aid of these bacteria feeding its 
roots. They get their nitrogen and thus much of 



HABIT OF GROWTH. 87 

their growth from the air. Thus the soil must have 
air in it or they cannot live. Waterlogged soils are 
barren of useful bacteria. Thus well drained soils 
are best for alfalfa. The bacteria thrive in soils 
alkaline, not acid. They cannot well withstand acid 
soils. They like a great abundance of carbonate of 
lime in the soil. It has not been shown that there 
is ever too much carbonate of lime in the soil for the 
good of the bacteria. Of other common western 
alkalies there may be a superabundance some- 
times of sulphate of soda and other more harmful 
black alkalies. The alfalfa root is the foundation 
of the alfalfa plant. When it is vigorous the whole 
plant thrives and resists disease and disaster. 

Resisting Temperature Extremes. — The alfalfa 
plant is hardy against cold. One could almost trace 
alfalfa to its original home by its very habit of re- 
sisting extreme heat and at the same time freezings 
cold. Desert countries have often blistering days 
and freezing nights. Alfalfa will be green nearly all 
winter down next the earth, waiting its chance. As 
soon as there is sun and warmth of spring 
it begins its growth. It is hardier than com- 
mon red clover and earlier to start in spring. 
Different strains of alfalfa have difPerent de- 
grees of resistance to cold. Cold affects the 
alfalfa differently at various stages of growth. 
When a warm spell in early spring pushes it up to 
a swift, succulent growth a hard freeze will lay it 
all over as though it were killed. It may indeed be 
seriously set back by such a freeze but usually it 



88 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

straightens up again as soon as it thaws and goes 
on growing in a few days. No animals should ever 
be let tread upon it when it is frosted. Indeed 
it is better for the alfalfa never to be depastured. 

The First Growth. — The first growth is usually 
strongest, perhaps because of the long rest it has 
had during winter, and maybe because of 
more abundant soil moisture in the spring„ 
In Ohio it begins to bloom in late May or 
early in June. In more southern states it 
blooms earlier; sometimes in Louisiana it will 
bloom in April, or even earlier. The height of 
alfalfa at blooming time varies with the soil and 
variety. Ordinarily it is about 30 to 40'' high. In 
very good alfalfa soils with abundant irrigation and 
good suns, it may be much higher. The writer has 
grown it on his old Utah ranch fields so tall that only 
the heads of the deer were visible as they stood 
nearly submerged in alfalfa verdure. In some soils 
where roots cannot go deep it may not get higher 
than 24''. 

Time to Cut. — When bloom begins time is near for 
alfa'lfa harvest. One cannot judge by state of bloom 
altogether when alfalfa should be cut, however. 
Perhaps in some western soils it does not matter 
when it is cut ; no great harm results from cutting it 
at the wrong season. In all eastern regions, how- 
ever, it is ver}^ necessary that it should be cut at the 
right time. Failure to know when to cut it often re- 
sults in losing altogether the thrift of the next cut- 
ting, and maybe losing the alfalfa completely. One 



HABIT OF GROWTH. 89 

cannot judge of when alfalfa should be cut by the 
appearance or non-appearance of bloom. Usually 
when it ought to be cut it will be in bloom. The only 
safe indication, however, is found in little shoots 
or buds that put out from the base of the stems near 
the earth. When these shoots put out, like little 
suckers, ready to make new growth, then cut the 
alfalfa and cut it immediately. Cutting must not 
be delayed else the shoots will become so high that 
they will be cut off with the hay. The alfalfa must 
not be cut before these shoots appear, because if 
this is done the alfalfa will not start off promptly, 
and when it does start will be singularly deficient in 
vigor and thrift. The reason is not known, but the 
fact is often observed that when a part of a field is 
mown only a few days too early and the rest of the 
field after the shoots have appeared there will be 
a difference of 100% or more in the yield of the 
next crop in favor of that cut at the right time. 

Further, when it is cut too early it often becomes 
unthrifty, rusted, yellow, sickly, and weeds and 
grass spring up and choke it. Thousands of ruined 
fields all over eastern America and in England trace 
their injury to having been cut at the wrong time. 
When it is mown off too soon all seems to go wrong 
with it. It may be that in some way the sap sours 
in the roots, the bacteria die, or some poison is 
secreted. Some such catastrophe is needed to ac- 
count for the behavior of the plants. 

Cutting for Soiling Weakens. — In England the 
writer has frequently observed that the habit there 



90 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of cutting alfalfa green and using it to soil liorses 
is responsible for great damage to the fields. At the 
end of a field where first the scythe began its work 
on immature alfalfa, it was so^ weakened that weeds 
and grasses came in thick and choked it out. At the 
other end of the field would often be good, thrifty 
alfalfa, because it had not been cut too soon. It is 
wise to cut as early as one can, and not cut before 
the appearance of the shoots, because thus a better 
quality of hay is secured. 

The Next Cutting. — Alfalfa cut at the right time 
makes astonishing recovery. The hay raked up, the 
field looks brown and bare for a few hours. Then 
comes the first tinge of green. In a day it is plainly 
to be seen. In two days it is green again. In a 
week no one should set foot upon it, and in four or 
f\.YQ weeks it is ready to cut again. Times vary, of 
course, but in Ohio if the first crop comes off about 
June 1, the next crop will be due about July 1 to 4. 
The same rule applies to the second cutting. It 
must not be taken away before the buds appear. 
The rule of waiting till new shoots appear on the 
bases of the stems applies to each cutting. As the 
summer gets older and dryer longer times elapses 
between the various cuttings. The second cutting 
will take about 40 to 45 days to mature, and the 
third cutting about the same time. At no time can 
one disregard the rule as to cutting when the shoots 
have appeared. Never cut alfalfa before these shoots 
come. Never delay cutting many days after they 
appear. 



iFiABit OF GROWTH. ^1 

Cutting Promotes Thrift. — It is a curious fact 
that alfalfa needs to be cut in order to keep in thrift. 
This is especially true in the region east of the 
Missouri River. Doubtless it is in part an acquired 
habit, speaking strikingly of the length of years that 
our alfalfa has been sown and mown by man. In 
Ohio, for example, one will sometimes put down a 
fence through a young alfalfa field. Afterward he 
cannot mow quite close to the fence and there will 
be corners where the alfalfa remains uncut. It is 
then a continual object lesson of the effect of neglect, 
since the uncut alfalfa becomes unthrifty, a prey to 
leaf fungus and other diseases. As the season goes 
on the cut alfalfa retains its thrift and vigor; the 
neglected gets more and more unthrifty. At last 
weeds and grass overpower it and in a few years 
nearly every plant has disappeared, while the plants 
regularly cut alongside have quite retained their 
pristine vigor. 

Late Mowing Harmful. — ^In warm countries alfalfa, 
is always green and growing, so there is moisture 
enough, yet it has its periods of partial rest and its 
times of greatest vigor. In the arid and irrigated 
west it seems to do no injury to 'the alfalfa to mow 
it down late in the season, or to pasture it close in 
the fall. In the eastern states, on the other hand, 
it is distinctly hurtful to alfalfa to cut it down so 
late that it will not go into winter with a good 
growth covering it to hold the snow and protect the 
crowns. Always there should be a growth of at 
least a foot of alfalfa when killing frost comes. This 



92 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

should not be depastured ; indeed, after killing frost 
no animal should be permitted to set foot in the 
alfalfa field. The difference in thrift and production 
between late mown alfalfa and that given fair treat- 
ment is very marked indeed. Many plants mown 
off in October will die altogether during the follow- 
ing winter. Thus when one means to^ plow the field, 
it is wise to mow it as late as convenient, since he 
gets quite a little hay from this fourth or fifth cut- 
ting, and at the same time weakens his alfalfa so 
that it plows easier. Very great injury in the humid 
regions has unknowingly been done the alfalfa by 
this very ignorance of its nature that led to its being 
mown late or depastured until winter. 

Danger from Treading. — In dry countries it seems 
to do little injury to alfalfa to let animals run on it 
all winter, even though they tread it down into the 
dust. In all the region of America lying east of the 
Missouri Eiver it is most harmful to alfalfa to tread 
upon it in winter, either by the feet of meu or ani- 
mals, or by wagons going over it. The line of direc- 
tion of a farm wagon going across a field can often 
be distinctly traced next spring by the two streaks 
of dead alfalfa plants. 

An alfalfa field should be a sacred place. Its gates 
should be closed and locked in September and not re- 
opened till May at the earliest, probably not till the 
first day of June, though these dates will of course 
be dependent on the latitude, now having in mind 
the climate of about parallel of latitude 40. 

Hardiness of the Plant. — Alfalfa then is one of 



HABIT OF GROWTH, 93 

the hardiest plants in the world when exposed to 
certain trials and dangers. Drouths have no terrors 
for it. Cold has no terrors for it. Heat has no ter- 
rors for alfalfa. It dies, if it dies at all, of pneu- 
monia brought on by wet feet in winter time, by 
cancer brought on by undrained soils and floods of 
rains in summer time ; it dies from fungus troubles 
brought on by exposure to too much wet and by not 
Imving the fungus-affected tops cut away at proper 
time; or it dies because its allies, the bacteria, be- 
come diseased and forsake it. It is a Mexican, living 
by means of the hot peppers it consumes, the pep- 
per to the alfalfa plant being carbonate of lime. 
Given these things, dry soil with air in it and alka- 
line with carbonate of lime, not sour ; keep animals 
off it in cold weather, cut it three times a year, keep 
grasses from choking it, and alfalfa will endure in 
almo'st any land for half a century. 

Ice Will Kill. — There is one thing that may hap- 
pen, however, that no art of man can circumvent; 
that is ice in winter. There is a danger line along 
through Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, probably 
extending through Michigan, where the warmth of 
spring comes before the cold of winter is out of 
the earth. Warm days thaw the snow, it makes a 
film of water over the earth ; this freezes hard and 
the ground is locked in icy fetters. This may kill 
the alfalfa dead. It may not happen more than once 
in several years. When it has happened the only 
thing to be done is to grin and bear it, plow the 
field, plant to corn or potatoes and re-seed the next 
year. Or it may be at once resown the same season. 



94 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Life of a Field, — What then is the profitable 
duration of an alfalfa field? In California, in some 
of the dry valleys with loose subsoil, it may ap- 
parently endure for a century. The writer has 
walked over an alfalfa field in Texas that was 40 
years old; in Kansas perhaps 10 years, in Nebraska 
maybe the same, or nearly as long ; in Iowa probably 
four to six years. In Ohio alfalfa will endure for 
10 years on the best drained land, and maybe for 
much longer time, yet the greatest profit is found in 
keeping it only while it is at its maximum efficiency, 
and that is about four years. Why expect or care to 
have it last forever? Alfalfa is one of the easiest 
established of clovers, nor is it costly to seed. It 
powerfully enriches the soil. Why then care to 
have it endure forever? It is wiser to use it only 
while in its full vigor, then as disaster overtakes 
it and one plant here, another there, dies out, leav- 
ing the stand thin, to plow it and re-seed after tak- 
ing off a crop or two of grain or roots, or whatever 
is required. 

In Maryland there is in Harford county a type 
of soil with such acid subsoil that alfalfa will not 
last more than a year or two in it. Yet some dairy- 
men have learned that it pays better to grow alfalfa 
than any other crop, leaving it stand only one year, 
then plowing and at once re-seeding. The practice 
is to sow in August, letting the alfalfa grow uncut 
that fall, then harvesting a good crop in late May, 
another in late June, a third crop about the first of 
August, at once plowing and thoroughly preparing 



HABIT OF GROWTH. 95 

the land and re-seeding. Liberal fertilizing is done 
each year and thns quite heavy crops of hay are 
grown, although it has been learned that the alfalfa 
will not go through a second winter, the roots de- 
caying about 6'' below the surface. Doubtless the 
acidity of the subsoil is responsible in large measure 
for this result. If large amounts of lime could be 
applied to the surface just before plowing and thus 
turned under in direct contact with the sour sub- 
soil, in time even this land could be made to carry 
alfalfa more than one year. It is interesting and 
useful, however, to know that the alfalfa pays well 
to be resown each year when this is necessary. 

Essentials in Culture.— Alfalfa is no Laodicean. 
When it is healthy it is one of the happiest plants 
in the world', and when diseased one of the feeblest 
and most miserable. Fortunately making it healthy 
is pretty easy; it speaks in no uncertain tones and 
makes its wants known. The writer frequently takes 
a walk to the village along an old railway embank- 
ment, made in large part from limestone gravel, sur- 
faced with that and with limestone screenings from 
the crusher. The cl-ay in it is of limestone formation. 
It could not be said that this soil was exceptional in 
any way except that it is thoroughly drained, and 
has in it much lime. Scattered alfalfa plants grow 
along this embankment. For years they have grown 
and seeded there. They are beautifully green and 
vigorous plants and they never seem to get old. The 
writer, wandering down the railway line reflects, 
''Why, here these plants in themselves tell all that 



96 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

one needs to know about alfalfa growing. Just give 
drainage enough, give air enough in the soil, give 
lime enough, give seed, and alfalfa is the surest 
plant to grow there is." And this is true. Only 
these simple things need be known : to make the land 
dry, to make the land sweet with lime, or a little 
more than sweet, fairly alkaline with lime, then to 
make it fertile and sow good seed with faith and 
inoculation. 

What agricultural joys will follow such simple 
doings as these! What beautifying of landscapes, 
what riches in animal life, what wealth of farms and 
homes and villages ! Upon such simple fundamentals 
do great things rest. 



THE SEED-BEARING HABIT. 

Alfalfa left alone will bloom and produce seed on 
the first crop. If no fungus troubles its leaves it 
will continue to grow, bloom and produce seed all 
summer. In Utah the writer has seen bushes of 
alfalfa more than 6' high, covered nearly all over 
with bloom and seed. In all humid regions there 
will be leaf diseases that will make such condition 
of growth impossible. 

Fertilization. — The alfalfa flower is probably in- 
capable of self-fertilization without the aid of bees 
or other insects. F. Eoberts and Geo. F. Freeman, 
of the Kansas experiment station at Manhattan, 
have made many experiments in alfalfa breeding. 
Briefly, in planting a nursery of alfalfa plants, 
separated from each, other about 18^', very great 
variation was observed. One field was planted from 
seed gathered in Montana, the other from seed of 
so-called Turkestan alfalfa. The plants in each 
group varied remarkably in leaf and hardiness and 
habit of growth. In order to propagate the desirable 
types, study of the alfalfa flower was made, with 
its habit of fertilization. The following study or 
the alfalfa blossom is quoted from Bulletin 151 of 
the Kansas agricultural experiment station : 

The flower of alfalfa is rather an advantageous one for hand- 
pollinating purposes. The two wings have projecting processes 
which overlap, and assist in holding down the curved, spring- 
like column formed by the united group of stamens which en- 

(97) 



98 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

close the pistil. A set of interlocking processes for the keel 
further assist in forming this spring-trap arrangement. When 
an insect of sufficient weight alights upon the keel, it depresses 
the latter, together with the enclosing wing petals; the trigger- 
like processes are pushed down past the upcurved column of the 
pistil and stamens, releasing them, and allowing the whole col- 
umn to spring up with considerable explosive force against the 
erect standard. At the time of pollination the style with the 
stigma has grown up above the stamens, and when released the 
stigma precedes the stamens, striking the insect's body first, in 
case the latter rests upon the keel, bearing its deposit of pollen 
brought from another flower. The burst anthers in turn dust off 
a new deposit of pollen as they are driven past the insect, which 
is thus equipped with a fresh supply of pollen to become avail- 
able for the next flower. Sometimes the shaking of the flower 
stems by the wind, or by the pelting of rain, many accomplish 
the same result. Self-fertilization may be secured also by visits 
of insects not yet loaded with pollen, which may, by setting off 
the explosive mechanism, bring about self-pollination. Since the 
pollen is shed before the stamen-pistil column is released, it 
happens that the stigma is already partly covered with pollen. 
Nevertheless, self-fertilization seems to occur but seldom in en- 
closed plants protected from insect visits. 

The explosive mechanism of the alfalfa flower has long 
been known, having been discovered as early as 1832 by A. P. 
De Candolle. 

In 1894, Burkill found it impossible to make seeds set in the 
unexploded flower, even though pollen were in contact with the 
stigma. He considers this fact to be due to the circumstance 
that the stigma does not become receptive to the pollen until its 
cells are injured by violent contact with some object. In proof 
he adduces the fact that he had caused unexploded flowers to 
set seed by pinching the stigma, by cutting off the tip of the keel^ 
or by rubbing the stigma with a stiff brush. It appears, there- 
fore, probable that insects secure the fertilization of alfalfa flow- 
ers largely by accidental injury to the stigma while endeavoring 
to cause the proboscis to enter; or else by exploding the flowers 
and causing the stigma to be dashed against the standard, the 
necessary amount of injury may be accomplished to enable thC 
pollen to become effective, in which case it may either be the 
already present pollen of the same flower, or foreign pollen 
brought by the insect that is utilized. 

Thus it is plain that insects play a large x^art in 



THE SEED-BEARING HABIT. 99 

the fertilization of alfalfa blooms. The honey bee 
helps, no doubt, where it is plentiful, and also m-any 
other sorts of insects help — butterflies, millers, ants 
and various small insects that swarm in alfalfa 
meadows. Whether honey bees are useful in fer- 
tilizing alfalfa blooms is at present a disputed point, 
many men affirming that they secured as large crops 
of alfalfa seed before bees were introduced into their 
regions as they do since. However this may be, it 
is certain that bees pay large profits in the western 
alfalfa-growing states. Alfalfa honey is of excellent 
quality and it is most doubtful if the bees ever 
gather any of it without unwittingly assisting in the 
fertilization of the alfalfa flower. 

Where Seed is Grown. — The alfalfa plant has 
whims and peculiarities not well understood. Parts 
of California produce seed, other parts are said to 
make too little seed to be worth troubling with. 
Nevada is a good seed-producing region, perhaps 
because of the extreme dryness of the state. Utah 
produces much seed of high quality and Utah is a 
dry land. Colorado produces good seed, so does 
Montana in lesser amounts. The Dakotas produce 
some seed and large amounts are threshed in 
Nebraska and Kansas. East of the Missouri Eiver 
little seed is grown; east of the Mississippi River 
hardly any alfalfa seed is saved. Stray plants in 
Ohio, on dry banks or along roadsides will load 
themselves with seed, while fields saved for the seed 
make not enough to be worth considering. Texas 
produces a good deal of seed. It has been found 



100 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

that most seed is produced during fairly dry years. 
The alfalfa grown on high, dry land without irriga- 
tion seeds best. Large crops are grown by irriga- 
tion on dry lands, but the irrigation has to be very 
carefully done not to water the alfalfa too much. 
When alfalfa is growing rapidly and has abundant 
moisture, for some reason not well understood it 
does not produce seed; the blooms fall and growth 
continues. On the other hand, when moisture is 
deficient and conditions are much less favorable 
seed sets abundantly. It is perhaps the old trick of 
Dame Nature making abundant provision against 
the extermination of any of her children by provid- 
ing bloom and fruit and seed whenever the exist- 
ence of the mother is attacked. 

Attempts to grow alfalfa seed in any state east of 
the Missouri Eiver is apt to result in much disap- 
pointment. The humid climate, the lack perhaps 
of suitable insects to fertilize, and the attacks of 
rust that affects the leaves make it a very uncertain 
crop. There are times, however, during very dry 
seasons, when thin stands of alfalfa in the eastern 
states will mature profitable crops of seed. 



GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA. 

When this is read it may be forgotten that the 
writer for many years has been a contributor to 
''The Breeder ^s Gazette/^ an American agricul- 
tural newspaper. In his work for The Gazette he 
has answered hundreds of alfalfa inquiries. Some 
of these have been put in such a way that they re- 
vealed an intelligent knowledge of the subject in the 
inquirers, but very many of these questions are mad- 
dening in the fact that they show so plainly that 
the seeker for information has almost no knowledge 
of his own soil or of any fundamental principles 
governing soil fertility or plant growth. For ex- 
ample, here is a sample question; many like it are 
received every season: ''I wish to sow some alfalfa. 
My land is lightly rolling and slopes to the west. It 
was sown in oats in 1906, was in corn in 1907.'^ 

Simply that and nothing more! What an index 
of the state of agriculture in the United States in 
this year of grace 1909! Growing alfalfa is not a 
question of seed or sowing. Sow almost any sort of 
alfalfa seed, sow at any time of moon or in almost 
any sort of way and you will succeed, if — ^here is the 
fatal ''if" — ^your soil is right. Sow with the great- 
est labor and pains, make incredible effort at 
preparation and you will fail, if your soil is wrong. 
Alfalfa growing is a soil question. Get the soil 
right and it is difficult to fail. It is easier to get a 
stand of alfalfa than of most common farm crops. 

(101) 



102 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

There is no mystery about getting a stand of alfalfa. 
To make that stand succeed once you get it, there's 
the rub, especially in the eastern states. 

Drainage. — What are the requirements of the 
alfalfa plant as regards soil? 

First, it likes soil to be dry, dry even in a wet 
time. That is, it ought to be a soil that will not fill 
up with water and remain waterlogged for many 
days. Alfalfa loves moisture too, but it must have 
moisture and air in the soil at the same time. Thus 
it likes well drained loams, alluvial soil along rivers 
or creeks (such lands are usually the best drained) 
or even gravelly soils, so they have also fertility. If 
naturally well drained lands are not on your farm 
then you can make the land dry with tiles. It is 
entirely practicable to drain land naturally wet and 
^'crawfishy'' with tiles so that it will grow alfalfa 
well. The writer has tested this on Woodland Farm 
where with his brothers he has laid many miles of 
tile underdrains. In truth not much of Woodland 
Farm would grow alfalfa before it was under- 
drained. Now about the heaviest and surest crops 
grow on land once too wet for alfalfa to grow at all. 

Drainage, that is the very first essential in alfalfa 
culture. Let that truth sink in deep. Do not sow al- 
falfa on a marsh, nor on a waterlogged clay that 
will stand full of water half the year. An occasional 
submergence by the overflowing of a stream may do 
no harm, will do no harm if the submergence comes 
in cold weather, or if the water is moving. An over- 
flow of even a week's duration, if the water is mov- 



GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA. 103 

ing swiftly, will probably do no harm. Even a few 
hours of stagnant water lying over the land in hot 
weather may kill the alfalfa. Drain. Drain deep. 
Drain thoroughly. Alfalfa roots are living things. 
Alfalfa bacteria are probably destroyed by being 
under water for a long time. 

Tiling. — In laying tiles where alfalfa may some 
day be sown see that they are laid as deep as the 
nature of the soil will permit. Soils differ much in 
this respect; sometimes the subsoil is so dense and 
impervious that water cannot well penetrate it. In 
such case it is useless to lay tiles deep in it. They 
will not drain the land any deeper if laid in the hard- 
pan than if laid just on its surface. Usually, how- 
ever, one can lay tiles in clay loams and ^' joint 
clays" much deeper than he has been accustomed to 
laying them. The extra depth pays largely. Tiles 
draw water from a much greater distance when laid 
deep, and plants thrive in proportion as the perma- 
nent water table is lowered. If the water level in 
the soil never rises above a depth of 10' from the 
surface all the better. Alfalfa roots will readily 
penetrate that distance. Tiles cannot be laid deeper 
than 4' or 5' with economy, owing to labor cost; 
if they could, and the soil were permeable enough 
to let them operate to their full depth, it would be 
all the better. On Woodland Farm the rule is to 
lay no tiles at a less depth than 36'' and the standard 
dep'th where soil is right and outlet can be had is 
48''. In early days many drains were laid too 
shallow; these are often taken up and laid deeper. 



104 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Deficiency in Soil. — Curiously enough there are 
many well drained soils in the eastern part of the 
United States that are admirably adapted to being 
penetrated by alfalfa roots, yet on which alfalfa does 
not naturally grow well, if at all. Such soils often 
are loose, pervious, easily penetrated by roots. They 
may be of clayey loam order, or have sandy or 
gravelly nature. On them perhaps grow chestnut 
trees. Chestnut soils ought usually to be good al- 
falfa soils. Naturally they are not. By right treat- 
ment they may be made good. The clue to their 
reclamation is lime. 

Soil a Living Thing.^-A soil is a living, drink- 
ing, breathing thing. If it is truly alive it has in it 
much air, sufficient water, but that held in suspen- 
sion as film water only in the earth, not in satura- 
tion. That is, there is a film of water about each 
little grain of sand, between each two grains of soil, 
and between the layers of water is air. The living 
soil has in it humus, vegetable matter, in greater or 
less amounts. It has in it bacteria in immense num- 
bers. It is alive with bacteria. These bacteria are 
of various kinds and orders. Some are engaged in 
destroying humus. They break it down and from 
the nitrogen in the humus make soluble nitrates. 
These the plants can absorb through their rootlets. 
Some of these bacteria are able to assimilate the 
free nitrogen of the air and make it available for 
plants growing with roots in that soil. These bac- 
teria exist in all soils probably where there is 
plenty of humus decaying. Other bacteria there are 



GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA. 105 

that live on the roots of the clover and other le- 
guminous plants. Alfalfa has its own special bac- 
teria that enables it to appropriate the free nitrogen 
of ithe air. Alfalfa will not thrive, nor even live 
very long, without these bacteria helping it. It has 
become used to them, it depends upon them much 
as the southern people depended upon slave labor 
in days gone by. And alfalfa-promoting bacteria 
will not live in all soils. In some soils they are 
found in myriads after alfalfa has grown there for 
a little time, as its near relatives melilotus or bur 
clover. What sort of soils do we find these bacteria 
to thrive best in when nature has planted them, un- 
helped by man? What sort of soils are they that 
produce alfalfa spontaneously! Let us go afield. 

Natural Seeding of Alfalfa. — ^^The nearest to 
wild alfalfa that is found in Amer'ica perhaps is in 
Montana, along the Yellowstone Eiver. There the 
writer has seen fields sown to timothy grass invaded 
by the alfalfa plant and gradually crowded out till 
at last there was a fine stand of luxuriant alfalfa and 
that without the sowing of one alfalfa seed. Thus 
it happened: the canal water floated down a few 
seed and deposited them near the top of the grass 
field. They grew and established themselves as 
lusty alfalfa plants. After the timothy grass was 
mown off the alfalfa went to seed and scattered a 
circle of self-sown alfalfa seeds about the mother 
plant. Next year there were many alfalfa plants 
where there had been only one, and these in turn 
went to seed. The end was a well set alfalfa field, 



106 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMEKICA. 

with the timothy grass practically crowded out. And 
on one farm of 160 acres near this spot, at a place 
close to Billings, Mont., a farmer sold his one year's 
cutting of alfalfa hay, amounting to 1,000 tons. 
Now, what was the nature of that soil! And what 
of the climate! 

First, the climate did not have very much to do 
with it. At least there are thousands of counties 
in the United States with as good climate for alfalfa 
growing as this special one, though it is true that 
there is plenty of sun and heat in summer, 
but an extraordinarily cold winter climate. Water 
for irrigation was in abundant supply and' never 
fear of rain to cause blight or spoil haying. The 
soil, then! This is a semi-arid region and the soils 
have not for thousands of years been leached by 
excessive rains. Thus they are filled with all sorts 
of mineral salts. They are alkaline soils; that is, 
filled with salts of lime, potash, magnesia and 
sodium. ■ Some of these salts are injurious to vegeta- 
tion, at least when present in excess; others are 
favorable. 

The one salt in this soil that especially favors 
alfalfa is carbonate of lime. This exists in great 
amounts in this soil, probably at least 1%% of this 
substance being present. One and one-half pounds 
of carbonate of lime to each hundred pounds of soil ! 
How much would that mean in an acre! Taking 
only the top f oo<t of soil it would amount to about 30 
t;ons of carbonate of lime present. That lime is 
doing something in that soil; can we discover what! 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 

The most vital fact is one that we cannot now ex- 
plain: the carbonate of lime makes the nitrifying 
bacteria thrive. They cannot seem to exist with- 
out it. Then it keeps the alfalfa in good health. 
Why should alfalfa or any other plant become sick! 
We think we know that plants give off certain toxic 
principles, poisonous to themselves. That is, the 
alfalfa roots exhale perhaps a poison that is in- 
jurious to itself and to other alfalfa roots. When 
there is much carbonate of lime in the soil this 
poisonous principle is in some way neutralized. Thus 
the alfalfa keeps in health and vigor and goes right 
on performing its miracles. This helps explain 
some things that have puzzled the wisest of us. 
Many men have had good, vigorous stands of alfalfa 
well fed with mineral fertilizers and with stable 
manures, and all at once with no warning whatever 
it would all die as though stricken with plague. This 
has happened repeatedly in many eastern and south- 
ern states. Never, so far as the writer has been able 
to learn, has it happened where the alfalfa was 
growing on a soil even fairly well supplied with 
carbonate of lime. 

Carbonate of lime, we may as well fairly confess, 
is the very keynote of successful alfalfa culture. 
Drainage and carbonate of lime are the two essen- 

(107) 



108 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tial things. All the rest that can be added will help ; 
these two are indispensable. 

Other Functions of Lime. — What other func- 
tions besides making the soil habitable for good and 
useful bacteria does the carbonate of lime have in 
the soil! 

It seems the very foundation of fertility itself. 
The presence of much carbonate of lime in the soil 
seems necessary to the formation of black humus. 
In nature soils rich in lime become black loams. 
Some good illustrations of this truth are seen in two 
instances. In Mississippi and Alabama are soils 
based on decaying limestone, the so-called ^'black- 
prairie" soils. They are exceedingly rich, strong, 
productive soils, among the best in the South. They 
grow any sort of crops well, and especially do they 
grow alfalfa luxuriantly. Most soils in the south are 
very deficient in humus and without the dark brown 
color. That is because most southern soils are lime- 
hungry. The vegetation that has fallen upon them 
and been buried in them has not changed to black 
humus, or to very little of it. Why not? Because of 
the absence of sufficient carbonate of lime. 

In Illinois one finds the northern end of the state 
a black, rich prairie soil, very full indeed of humus. 
The southern end of the state, on the other hand, 
has a soil of light color, very deficient in humus. 
Think what story this tells ! Glaciers ground up 
limestones in the northern end of the state and mixed 
their detritus through the soil. Below the line where 
the limestones reached the light colored soils begin. 



CARBONATE OP LIME. 109 

The same sun shone on all of Illinois during these 
centuries, the same rains fell, prairie grasses grew 
over most of the land. Where carbonate of lime was 
abundant in the soil humus was created, and the 
land grew black and rich. Where there was de- 
ficiency in carbonate of lime fertility could not 
gather. It is a most significant lesson. 

Carbonate of lime then conserves humus and fer- 
tility in some way. It makes a healthful home for 
the bacteria that help plants. What else does it do 1 

Stops Waste of Nitrogen. — Carbonate of lime 
stops waste of nitrogen. Decaying vegetation or 
humus in the soil creates nitric acid ; this is readily 
soluble, and unless taken up by plants soon leaches 
away and is gone. Should there be a sufficient sup- 
ply of carbonate of lime present, however, the tiny 
drop of nitric acid seeking to escape touches a par- 
ticle of carbonate of lime, the two unite and form a 
calcium nitrate. This locks up the nitrogen and holds 
it in the soil. It is practically impossible to store fer- 
tility in soils deficient in carbonate of lime. Soils hav- 
ing a large store of carbonate of lime, on the other 
hand, will accumulate nitrogen, and hold it for many 
years, giving it up again when called upon by the 
plants. I have seen astonishing instances of this upon 
Woodland Farm. Certain fields have had on them at 
one day old home sites, where the first settlers built 
their little cabins and had their gardens and cow lots. 
For forty or fifty years these small settlements have 
been swept away, and nothing remains now to tell 
their location excepting the fragments of brick or 



no ALFALFA FAiElMING IN AMERICA. 

pottery turned up by the plow. Naturally the late 
treatment of 'these fields has been uniform, and as 
much manure has been applied to one spot as to an- 
other. When sown to alfalfa, however, a wonderful 
story is told, since the alfalfa plants, rooting deep, 
find stores of fertility in the subsoil, leached down 
perhaps from the old gardens or cow lots, and held 
from total escape by the presence in the subsoil of 
great amounts of limestone gravel and smaller par- 
ticles. The outline of these old gardens and cow lots 
will be found so distinctly defined by the luxuriant 
alfalfa growing thereon that one can say with cer- 
tainty, ^ ' Here stood the garden fence ; there was the 
man 's cow lot. ' ' 

Maintenance of Fertility. — In America we have 
been wont to boast of the fertility of our farms. In 
truth, we have great stores of fertility, yet none too 
much, and in fact it is probable that there will not 
be found in America one farm in a thousand as fer- 
tile as it should be to yield a good profit. Other and 
older lands are more fertile than ours. The old 
fields of France have some of them been farmed for 
a thousand years, and none can say how much 
longer, and are producing today better than Ameri- 
can fields; and in England the same story is often 
true. These fertile foreign fields are rich in carbo- 
nate of lime; and yet it is being added to and its 
store increased by each provident owner. No Ameri- 
can farmer should be content with his stores of fer- 
tility as they exist today. His fields are not rich 
enough if he can profitablv. make them richer, and 



CABBONATE OP LIME. Ill 

indeed with nine- tenths of the farms of America -the 
fertility is so low that any hope of profitable agri- 
culture thereon must first be based upon a stern and 
inflexible determination to build the soils and make 
them rich. It is a great thought then that we have 
here, that soils filled with carbonate of lime naturally 
grow rich of themselves if planted with leguminous 
crops, or even left in a state of nature, and that 
upon these soils stored abundantly with lime almost 
any degree of fertility may be built. And what 
other function has lime in the soil? We need not 
stop here to discuss its power to floculate and ren- 
der more porous the soil, its ability to bind together 
sands, and so on. Perhaps that power of lime ha^s 
been exaggerated, but this is true, soils rich in car- 
bonate of lime are almost universally rich also in 
phoisphorus. This arises from two causes, one that 
lime carbonates usually carry a percentage of phos- 
phorus in their own composition; the other, that 
they prevent the waste of phosphorus by its leach- 
ing away, or its uniting in insoluble compounds with 
iron or alumina. 

Lime the Basis. — To put it short, you cannot build 
a soil rich in either nitrogen phosphorus or prob- 
ably potash unless it is first rich in carbonate of 
lime. There is here a great field for thought. Hil- 
gard says that no great and enduring civilization 
has ever been built upon an acid soil. This seems 
true. Babylon stood on an alkaline plain rich in 
lime, Egypt's soils are reputed rich in lime, Greece 
was built upon marble hills, Rome upon limestone, 



11^ ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and the hills of Judea — where grew such grapes, 
such goodly grain, such grass that the land literally 
flowed with milk and honey ; Judea where David the 
shepherd boy walked and tended his sheep and grew 
to the stature of a man ; Judea, where Christ walked 
and lived and loved — is a land of limestone, the lime 
soft and honeycombed by water, constantly decaying 
and giving its riches to the soil. It is a curious 
thought, indeed, that had it not been for the lime- 
stone in the hills of Judea, perhaps the Master of 
mankind might have been born in another land. 

Availability of Lime.— So far as the writer's re- 
searches have extended, everywhere that limestone 
is found alfalfa grows naturally, almost of itself. 
This book will be read by many men, we hope, who 
have not been blessed by being placed on soils rich 
in carbonate of lime. Let them not thereby be 
overmuch caist down. This is an age of machinery 
and of cheap transportation. Limestone exists in 
incalculable amounts throughout a great part of the 
United States, and can be burned or ground raw, and 
transported from the cliffs to the farms at very small 
cost. This will be done some day, no doubt. It is 
only a question of the farmers awakening to the 
advantages to be derived from the use of abundant 
carbonate of lime, and their asking for it, when 
manufacturers will be glad in nearly every state, 
as they have in Ohio, to place the stuff on the market 
at a reasonable rate. My good friend, Prof. A. D. 
Selby, of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, 
himself almost as great an enthusiast on lime as the 



CARBONATE OP LIME. 113 

writer, once remarked that ''Never yet was found 
an abandoned farm in America tliat had in its soil 
anything like a sufficiency of carbonate of lime." 

Evidence of Lime. — It is easy to note the evidence 
of lime. Soils rich in it naturally cover with grass, 
which stops erosion, therefore the hills are smooth 
and rounded; roadsides are carpeted with grass as 
though seeded by some maker of lawns; animals 
stand tranquil and content in pastures filled with nu- 
tritious forage; horses grown on soils rich in lime 
have fine forms and much life and spirit ; boys and 
girls have good teeth and strong bones; in fact 
nearly all agricultural joy centers around the abun- 
dance of carbonate of lime in the soil. 

Add Limestone. — If you have not enough lime in 
your soil get it. It is a thing fairly permanent in 
itself. The rain leaches it away, the soil acids 
dissolve it. We do not know yet just how fast 
these processes accomplish their object, yet it is not 
probably so very rapid. When you put a ton of 
limestone in your soil it lasts till it has been dis- 
solved by the rain or made inert by soil acids. If 
you put in enough lime your sons will have its bene- 
fits. With it you can set about soil building in good 
courage. With lime enough you can grow clovers, 
grow alfalfa, grow the best grasses. What fertility 
you add through stable manures will not leach away. 
A good German farmer in western Maryland re- 
marked one day as he spoke of the large amounts of 
lime they were burning to apply to their fields: 
**Yes, Mr. Wing, it may be true that lime is not 



114 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

manure, but it certainly makes our barn manures 
last two or three years longer than they do when we 
do not use lime." The truth is that the presence in 
their soil of abundant carbonate of lime did two 
useful things— it stopped the leaching away of sol- 
uble nitrates and it promoted the development in 
their soil of the wonderful little organisms that can 
fix nitrogen in the soil, even without the aid of 
legumes, the azotobacter. Has any farmer failed to 
note that grass land, when full of carbonate of lime, 
gets stored full of nitrogen, even without the pres- 
ence of many clovers"? That is the work, so scien- 
tists tell us, of these marvelous little azotobacter 
organisms. 

Carbonate of Lime Is Neutral. — There is an old 
saying that has done more to harm agriculture 
throughout the English speaking world than any 
other known combination of words. It is this : '«.'Lime 
enriches the father and impoverishes the son." 

This saying leads men to believe that lime is a 
stimulant, something that enables plants to forage 
more vigorously and thus more quickly rob the soil, 
or else that the lime sets free plant food. There is, 
of course, some truth in these assumptions if applied 
to burned lime. Burned lime does attack humus 
or any vegetable or organic compound. Used in ex- 
cess it may render soils temporarily barren. But 
carbonate of lime never injures soil in any way. It 
is a neutral thing ; like sand it attacks nothing. Soil 
acids attack it ; it welcomes the enemy and absorbs it 
into itself. Could we change that old saw to read, 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 115 

^'Lime enriches the father, and the want of it impov- 
erishes the son," we would be near the truth. In 
England we read that while lime has been in use 
there for many centuries, it has largely been in neg- 
lect for the past forty years, and now there must be 
a decided awakening and a renewed use of it or Eng- 
lish soils will relapse most sadly. 

Forms and Kinds of Lime. — Eaw limestone is a 
carbonate of lime. Burning it drives off the carbon 
and makes it a quick, or caustic, lime. After burn- 
ing, when it absorbs moisture and carbonic acid gas 
again and becomes air-slaked lime, it has then less 
causticity than when it was first burned. If it is 
slaked with a little water, so that it falls into a dry 
powder, it is caustic lime. If it is slaked and ground 
in a factory it is called hydrated or agricultural 
lime. It is sometimes ground without adding water, 
when it is termed ground lime ; or the raw limestone 
is ground into powder, which is called ground car- 
bonate of lime, or ground limestone, or raw lime- 
stone. 

Now, what of the virtues of these various forms of 
lime! 

The burning drives off nearly half the weight of 
the natural limestone; thus the resultant product is 
[nearly twice as strong as it was before burning. 
Thus if it must be shipped a long way by rail it may 
save so much in freight that it will be better to use 
the burned lime. Burning has also made it biting 
or caustic. A lump of this caustic lime held in the 
hand and moistened will eat the flesh. Caustic lime 



116 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will attack vegetable matter or humus in the soil. 
Applied in excess it will destroy bacterial life, so 
caustic lime is not so safe to use as the raw rock 
ground, the true carbonate of lime. On the other 
hand one can use less of it and get effect sooner, be- 
cause of its energy. The difficulty in its use to pro- 
mote alfalfa growing is that one ought to use more 
than lime enough to correct acidity when he is lay- 
ing land down to alfalfa; he ought to correct the 
acidity and leave a goodly store of lime carbonate 
lying in the soil, so that alfalfa roots will be in actual 
contact as the plants grow. This one can hardly 
do with safety with caustic lime. 

Use of Caustic Lime. — How much caustic lime 
can be safely used and how can it best be applied? 

Soils differ in their power to absorb lime safely. 
Strong clays and soils full of sour humus can take 
most; sandy, poor soils must be limed with care if 
caustic lime is used. There is some danger of ^4ime 
burn," that is, of making soil temporarily barren 
by giving it an excess of caustic lime. The poorer 
the soils in humus the more danger of this. Yet I 
have seen alfalfa fields in Maryland where the only 
good alfalfa present was where the piles of lime had 
been slaked, and where probably the lime had been 
applied at the rate of ten tons to the acre or more. 

How much caustic lime can we use? No one 
knows just, at present. I saw this experiment tried 
in Tennessee: On Idlehour Farm, near Knoxville, 
Tenn., James P. McDonald had tried to grow alfalfa 
on Tennessee River lands. It had miserably failed. 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 117 

Crab grass had choked out the feeble growth. Mr. 
McDonald was a stubborn man and had seen alfalfa 
grow in South America. He was determined to 
grow it on Idlehour. Suspecting that lime was the 
thing needed, he burned a lot of it on his own place 
and applied it with a manure spreader. His aim 
was to apply about two tons to the acre. In many 
parts he applied at least double that amount. 
Wherever the manure spreader dropped the lime 
the alfalfa grew luxuriantly and the crab grass, was 
vanquished. I could not but marvel as I drove 
through this wonderful alfalfa. It was the twenty- 
fourth day of July and the alfalfa stood above the 
axles of the carriage and was ready to be mown, the 
third crop for the season. There was hardly a bit of 
grass or any weeds in the alfalfa. To show that the 
lime had done the work, one could see where the 
man driving the spreader had left strips here and 
there without lime. In these strips was hardly any 
alfalfa, and it was little, feeble stuff, while just be- 
side it, where the lime had been applied, it stood up 
like a wall. 

Crab Grass and Lime. — It seems true that crab 
grass, that arch enemy of alfalfa in the south, is 
easily vanquished by use of a goodly amount of 
lime. I have enough evidence, of this to believe that 
it may be laid down as a law that lime will cure crab 
grass in alfalfa. It is not probable that the lime 
destroys the crab grass, or is particularly injurious 
to it, but it so helps the alfalfa that it springs into 
quick growth and gets the start of the grass. Hardly 



118 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

anything can stand before healthy alfalfa. Almost 
any weed will conquer unhealthy alfalfa. Lime is 
its tonic, its heal-all. 

Amount of Caustic Lime. — How much caustic lime 
will we dare use? In an acre of soil, counting the 
top foot, there are roughly about 2,000 tons. The 
sweetening of this mass of soil cannot be accom- 
plished by any handful of lime. One ton to the acre 
is one part in 2,000; two tons to the acre is one- 
tenth of one per cent, of lime. It would seem folly 
to use less than two tons to the acre of caustic lime. 
Double that, well distributed, would almost cer- 
tainly do harm. Is there a man who has harmed his 
soil by putting in it four tons of caustic lime to the 
acre, seeing that it is well distributed, and that the 
land has good store of humus, and has then sown it 
to alfalfa? 

Caustic lime must not be supposed to remain 
caustic for a long time after it is applied to the soil. 
It soon absorbs carbon again and becomes a neutral 
and harmless substance. This being true, why not 
use some form of carbonate of lime in the begin- 
ning? The only answer is that it is sometimes 
cheaper, because of freights or lack of machinery 
for grinding, to use the burned lime. 

Other Forms of Lime. — Now for some other forms 
of lime. Air-'slaked lime, as has been said, has 
absorbed a lot of carbon and is not nearly so biting 
and caustic as the fresh burned lime. It is fre- 
quently for sale at a comparatively low price, be- 
cause it is a waste product about lime kilns. It is 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 119 

safe to use in fairly large amounts on the land. 
Probably no harm would result from using as much 
as six tons to 'the acre of air slaked lime. One may 
burn his own lime and, putting it in piles, let it air 
slake on his own farm if he has time to wait, or he 
may buy it cheap from the refuse about the kilns. 
Bear in mind that it has gained in weight in slaking, 
and is only about twO'- thirds as strong as the fresh 
burned lime. 

Ground lime is fresh-burned lime ground ready 
for use. It is very convenient to distribute, and 
there may possibly be some virtue in having it slake 
m direct connection with the land. The only objec- 
tion to its use is that manufacturers often charge 
pretty well for grinding it. The farmer can some- 
times grind it at home, or he can buy lump lime and 
slake it at home at almost no co'st. He can pile the 
lime in little piles of a bushel in a place over the 
field and let it slake by absorbing moisture from the 
soil ; then when it is in powder spread it at once with 
the shovel. Or he can slake it to powder in a large 
pile and apply it with a lime distributor or by use 
of the manure spreader. To first lay down in the 
manure spreader a thin layer of chaff or manure 
and set the machine on the slow speed, will make it 
work very well. Many manure spreaders are now 
made with special lime distributors. 

Time to Apply.— When is the right time to put on 
caustic lime! Not in direct connection with manure, 
since it will doubtless attack the manure and set 
free more or less nitrogen that may possibly be 



120 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

wasted. Better to turn the manure under and apply 
the lime afterward. It can then be mixed through 
the soil with the disk or any sort of harrow. Lime 
sinks, rains dissolve it and leach it down, so usually 
it is best not to turn it down deep. It takes a liitle 
time for lime to neutralize soil acidity, so get it on 
some weeks or months ahead of the time that you 
wish to sow alfalfa. The time of year when it is 
applied is not essential. A farm is a busy place, if 
it is a business farm. So just get out the lime when- 
ever you have leisure, only remembering not to put 
caustic lime in contact with manure if you can well 
avoid it. 

Depth to Apply Lime. — As has been said, lime 
sinks, so it is usually best to put it near the surface. 
It ought, however, to be mixed as perfectly as 
possible with the soil, and is not very effective when 
left in lumps, since it is no't then in contact with 
enough of the soil particles. There are soils that 
have such acid subsoils that they will not grow 
alfalfa more than a year or two before it perishes. 
In these soils the roots decay down about six inches 
below the surface. Sometimes 'this rotting is caused 
by too much water in the subsoil, but when the sub- 
soil is dry water will not stand in post holes, and 
then one must conclude that it is soil acidity that is 
aJt fault, especially if he finds by the litmus paper 
test that the soil is really sour. I have seen such 
soils along the Atlantic seaboard. In the making 
of these soils lime was left out and other combina- 
tions of chemicals put in that form probably mineral 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 121 

acids. Liming the surface makes alfalfa start off 
vigorously and make good growth for a year or a 
little longer, then it begins to decay, and will rarely 
live the second winter. In these soils the need is to 
study how best to get lime down into the subsoil, or 
at least down in direct contact with it. I suggest 
that one way to accomplish this is to apply lime very 
liberally to the top of the land before plowing, then 
to turn the land as deep as possible, turning at the 
same time the furrows as near as practicable 
squarely upside down. A better plan, but more la- 
borious, would be to distribute the lime in the bot- 
tom of each furrow as the land was plowed, turning 
it under by the next following furrow. This puts 
the lime in direct contact with the subsoil. If a sub- 
soil plow could now follow and open the underlying 
ground, which would let some of the lime drop into 
it, the work would be done in an ideal manner. 

Value of Liming. — It may make men in California 
or Colorado smile to read of any such laborious way 
of making land ready for alfalfa in the East. They 
need not scorn the eastern man nor his soil or 
methods. He has in truth better opportunity to 
make profit from alfalfa growing than they with 
their splendid soils, rich in lime and phosphorus, 
and their fine, sunny skies. The eastern man has 
advantage of splendid markets. His alfalfa when 
he gets it is worth to him at least $15 per ton, and 
if he is a dairyman or a stockman buying wheat bran 
at $25 per ton he can very nearly replace a ton of 
purchased bran with a ton of alfalfa hay grown 



122 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

near his own barn. Then eastern lands sell at com- 
paratively low prices; all along the Atlantic sea- 
board land can be bought for from $40 to $75 per 
acre that will, with proper preparation, grow from 
three to seven tons of alfalfa hay a year. Some 
western men are seeing this and coming back to the 
neglected Atlantic states, and with splendid west- 
em faith and enthusiasm are building alfalfa soils 
there and reaping rich profits therefrom. I have in 
mind very many instances where liming lands has 
brought alfalfa after it had repeatedly failed before 
the lime was applied. 

Effects of Lime. — ^When God made soils He often 
made them by grinding up rock masses, either by 
use of glacial icebergs or by the grinding action of 
rivers. When these rock masses were of limestone, 
the result was a limestone soil filled with particles 
great and small of ground limestone or carbonate of 
lime. In some soils there are enormous amounts of 
this material. In some very fertile soils of northern 
Illinois, taking the top five feet there will be found 
in one acre as much as 500 tons of carbonate of 
lime. Such soils are always rich and productive. 
They are always natural alfalfa soils, provided they 
are well drained. Along most rivers the alluviums 
are pretty well stored with carbonate of lime, thus 
one sees the river bottoms growing alfalfa well when 
the near lying uplands are too sour to grow it at all. 
It is because of the greater amount of lime in these 
alluvial soils, that and the better drainage and fer- 
tility all around, that mark them as alfalfa lands. 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 123 

There are river soils that will not grow alfalfa, but 
they are soils made by the deposition of silt that 
came itself from land too poor in lime. Much of 
western Kentucky will not grow alfalfa without lim- 
ing, yet along the rivers, particularly along the Mis- 
sissippi River, alfalfa grows gloriously. The same 
is true of the land across the river in Missouri. 
Much Missouri land needs lime to promote alfalfa 
growth, but the alluvial soils near the Mississippi 
grow it beautifully, and alfalfa growing in southeast 
Missouri is assuming large proportions. 

In Kentucky the writer has observed certain steep, 
stony hillsides growing alfalfa luxuriantly, while 
many level and apparently much richer soils not far 
away would not grow it at all. The reason was 
plain ; the small stones were fragments of limestone, 
and the soil, though apparently poor, was yet rich 
in carbonate of lime, fairly well stored with phos- 
phorus and potash, and the alfalfa, finding itself 
so healthy and vigorous, foraged for its own 
nitrogen. 

In Washington state alfalfa grows splendidly 
along the eastern side and in the irrigated valleys 
of the middle section, because the soils there are 
alkaline and not sour, with abundant lime, but on 
the western slope of the mountains and along Puget 
Sound it grows hardly at all, because lime is deficient 
in those soils. On an island in Puget Sound the 
writer found very luxuriant alfalfa growing near 
the shore, and upon investigation found great quan- 
tities of shells buried in the soil. The Indians had 



124 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

feasted on clams, it would seem, and this was tlie 
dumping ground for their shells during unnum- 
bered years. Here then was carbonate of lime, and 
it was most noticeable that the soil in the interstices 
between 'the shells was dark in color and evidently 
contained a good deal of humus, while the soil of 
the interior away from the lime was raw and yellow. 
The lesson is plain; in order to make alfalfa grow 
all over western Washington it is only necessary to 
apply lime, and as limestone is very scant in supply 
the best source, perhaps, would be these very shells, 
which could be ground to a powder and mixed with 
the soil. 

Lime in England. — In other lands men have long 
imitated Nature's way and used lime in large 
amounts. England is built upon chalk rock, and 
chalk is a soft form of carbonate of lime. For cen- 
turies farmers have dug this soft chalk and hauled 
it to the fields, spreading it broadcast where it soon 
crumbled and mixed with the soil. The writer has 
stood on the brinks of chalk pits in England so deep 
that only the tops of trees peeped above their edges 
and marveled as he reflected what enormous 
amoiunts of chalk had been taken from them and for 
what a very long time men had been doing good 
farming in that land. It is a curious thought, too, 
that the soil to which these good English farmers 
were applying this lime was already what we would 
term in America a limestone soil. It was a soil once 
derived from the chalk rock itself, decaying through 
the ages through the action of soil waters and soil 



CARBONATE OP LIME. 125 

acids. Eains fall, they leach out lime, plants decay, 
turn sour, the acid attacks lime, thus year by year 
th top soil loses more and more its lime and tends 
to sourness. Once in Lincolnshire I walked down 
into a chalk pit where a laborer was loading a cart, 
on the farm of Henry Budding, of Lincoln sheep and 
Short-horn cattle fame, and asked the laborer why 
he dug the chalk. ' ^ It be for the dung, sir, ' ' was the 
response. 

* ^ And do you put it on the land ! ' ' 

^'Ay, and it do make the clovers and the grass 
grow better, sir,'' was the response. This on a farm 
already buried in rich grass, already having enough 
lime in its soils so that sheep pasturing on them had 
bones like calves and cattle stood on legs like straight 
columns of a temple. 

Eider Haggard in his interesting book, ^'Kural 
England," makes frequent reference to lucerne, 
stating usually that it is grown where the land was 
chalky and drouthy. On one farm he found them 
applying a sort of marl that they dug from the sub- 
soil, this on the farm of Eobert Stephenson of Bur- 
well, Cambridge. I quote : 

He described to me a process which I was not fortunate 
enough to witness, as in these days of depression it is, I under- 
stand, but seldom practiced on account of the initial expense, al- 
though it used to be common enough — that of treating fen lands 
with gault. This gault, a mixture of clay and marl, is dug from 
the subsoil out of trenches cut ten yards apart, and spread on 
the surrounding surface to the quantity of about 200 tons to the 
acre. The land thus treated is said to double its value. The cost 
of the operation may be put at from $15 to $25 per acre. One 
application will last from 10 to 12 years, the full benefits being 
experienced in the second year after treatment. 



126 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Mr. Stephenson also grew lucerne, and when he 
wished to sow down land to grass for a permanent 
pasture, sowed the grass seed in the lucerne field, 
finding that tlie seed took well there (as we have all 
learned, of times to our sorrow), and that the lucerne 
or alfalfa furnished good pasturage till the other 
seeds came on. 

I have mentioned these foreign uses of carbonate 
of lime because agriculture is so recent in America 
that we have not much precedent to which to refer, 
and agricultural practice abroad is the result of 
experiences of the fathers for centuries back . What- 
ever one finds them doing over there he may feel 
pretty certain has been well tried and tested. In 
Scotland I have seen heath land reclaimed and made 
intO' farming land. The process there was to first 
drain the wet, sour slopes, then lime them with about 
thirty tons to the acre of lime, the raw carbonate of 
lime being used, if I remember correctly, and after 
that manure was used; then clovers, turnips, oats, 
grass or any good thing that the climate would 
grow. 

New Work. — It is rather a new work, this use of 
carbonate of lime or raw ground limestone in Amer- 
ica. A few years ago nothing could be done except 
to dig marls out of the earth where they were to be 
found, and as these marls were nearly always 
under water not much of this has been done. With 
the increase in use of concrete construction came 
call for crushed limestone. Railways asked also 
for crushed limestone for ballast material. Crush- 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 127 

ers of great size and power were installed at lime- 
stone quarries and quantities of limestone dust ac- 
cumulated. Finally men began hesitatingly to use 
this limestone dust. The results were astonishingly 
good. Then quarrymen began advertising the 
ground limestone and selling it at a low price. The 
farmers took hold of it in Ohio, Illinois and some 
other states, and at last quarrymen began installing 
large crushers and grinders that took the raw rock 
from the quarry and reduced it to powder, making 
the whole output fit for farm use. This is usually 
put on cars in bulk and sold for from 75 cents to 
$1.50 per ton. The low price quoted is from a point 
in Illinois where the writer believes the state, with 
convict labor, grinds limestone for agricultural 
purposes. 

Limestone Harmless. — This ground limestone is 
harmless to the soil, so one may use as much of it 
as he chooses. Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins of the Illinois 
experiment station has applied it at the rate of 100 
tons to the acre with not the least sign of injury to 
the soil. It is pleasant stuff to work with, not acrid 
and biting like burned lime if it gets on your skin, 
nor does it get caked together if it happens to get 
wet. One may put it on his soil at any time that 
suits his convenience. He may put it on in connec- 
tion with manure if he wishes and no harm will 
result. It cannot burn out the humus, it attacks 
nothing. Soil acids attack the particles of limestone 
and are neutralized, but the lime itself does no harm 
no matter how much is used. It is nature's way of 



128 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

using lime in the soil. Some day, soon let ns hope, 
there will be thousands of machines busily at work 
grinding up the raw limestone rocks, which fortu- 
nately are plentiful enough in America, and farmers 
will be busy spreading this sweetening powder 
broadcast over their land. 

Distributing Lime. — I have found some difficulty 
in distributing limes. Spreaders there are, but 
usually they do not apply it nearly fast enough. 
There will be machines devised that will apply as 
much as one wishes, up to ten tons to the acre, no 
doubt. At present the manure spreader seems as 
satisfactory as anything available for spreading 
ground limestone. 

Quantity of Lime. — How much should be used on 
an acre? It is difficult to say. The art of lim- 
ing is too new in America, especially with carbonate 
of lime, ground limestone, to give us much data. We 
can only guess. The writer has known of remark- 
able results from u-se of as little as three tons per 
acre of ground limestone. This seems an infinitesi- 
mal amount when one considers the 2,000 tons of soil 
in the top foot of an acre. Take that acre apart, 
there are 160 square rods in it. Supposing one were 
asked to lime one square rod sufficiently to sweeten 
it well, using the inert ground limestone, how much 
would he naturally put in! Most sensible men would 
put in at least 500 pounds, supposing cost was not 
considered. That would make forty tons to the 
acre, and we cannot afford that now; there are too 
many acres to be limed. But we can afford 100 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 129 

pounds to the square rod, and that" seems little 
enough, and yet it means eight tons to the acre. 
That amount I would advise when the material can 
be had cheap enough to make it possible, and even 
more. It costs? Yes, but it pays. Take an acre of 
old, sour land that is not worth cultivating in its 
natural state and put on it eight tons of ground 
limestone. Put the cost at $2.50 per ton. That 
means an expense for liming of $20 per acre. Then 
that land will be fit to sow alfalfa upon, as soon as 
it has been drained and enriched. Mind, we do not 
claim that lime is a manure. The lime makes it 
possible to grow crops that make manure. With 
alfalfa growing well upon that acre it ought to yield 
at least four tons each year, and there is a thousand 
pounds of hay for each ton of raw limestone rock 
you have used. Cannot afford it? Can you afford 
not to do it? 

But with much less ground limestone on some 
soils alfalfa has come where it had failed repeatedly 
before. Among a mass of similar letters I find this 
significant one from Iowa : 

"After repeated failures with alfalfa in this county (Scott, 
Iowa), I have acted on your advice and applied 3,000 pounds of 
raw limestone dust with the seeding in August of 1907. This acre, 
diagonally across the three different varieties, produced a uni- 
form luxuriant growth of alfalfa at the three cuttings, besides a 
growth of one foot not cut. I estimate each cutting at two tons 
per acre. The rest of the field showed a patchy growth ranging 
from two inches to 18", very unsatisfactory. I am convinced that 
you are right when you say that raw limestone will assure suc- 
cess with alfalfa." 

I tried for several years to help a farmer in east- 
ern Pennsylvania grow alfalfa, but each effort was 



130 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

without success. I advised drainage, and the land 
was drained, but yet alfalfa refused to grow. I 
advised manure, and the land was made so rich that 
hog weeds grew as high as a man^s head, and yet 
alfalfa refused to grow. I advised much phos- 
phorus with no result. Different times of seeding 
were tried, and inoculation of the soil, and yet only 
failure resulted. Then I gave much belated advice 
to lime, and lime well, to use eight tons of ground 
limestone to the acre and seed in late July. The 
man did nearly as he was told, putting on six tons 
of raw lime dust to the acre, and the very next year 
cut six tons to the acre of alfalfa hay. His field was 
the marvel of all the country around, and men came 
to see it. 

I could multiply these instances almost indefi- 
nitely. 

Lime in Soils. — The reader should bear steadily 
in mind that the natural alfalfa growing regions of 
the world have in their soils now about from .5 per 
cent to 4 per cent of carbonate of lime. Five-tenths 
per cent is half of 1 per cent, or about ten tons of car- 
bonate of lime to the acre. Four per cent, would be 
approximately eighty tons of carbonate of lime to 
the acre. These figures are for the top foot of soil 
only. In natural alfalfa soils the subsoil is usually 
richer in lime than the top soil. When a man lives 
away from the limestone it is his privilege to buy 
carbonate of lime and add it to his soil. And when 
he lives in a region where limestone rocks abound 
and the soil is yet deficient because of leaching- rains 



CARBONATE OP LIME. 131 

of many centuries, it is his privilege to crush and 
grind the rocks of his own farm and put the" dust 
over his land. 

Farm Machines for Crushing. — In this connection 
it may be remarked that there are now machines 
made that will take the raw rocks that may crop out 
on a man's own farm and grind them into usable 
dust, the machines being mounted on wheels and 
readily portable, so that they can be drawn from one 
farm to another, as need demands. Thus the farmer 
may have a machine come to his own farm and 
grind up for him a pile of limestone of as many hun- 
dred tons as he desires. It will lie in pile unharmed 
by weather till he is ready to put in a field. 

There are many thousands of acres of land in 
Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and adjoining states that 
is fairly fertile, is naturally pretty well drained so 
that the expense* of drainage will be but slight, and 
that only awaits the coming of lime carbonate to 
make it produce good alfalfa. And the beauty of 
it is that in Tennessee and Kentucky very often the 
limestone is right in the neighborhood, and some- 
times right on the farm where it is needed. 

Summary/. — I realize that I have taken not a little 
time to present this matter. My apology is that the 
subject is fraught with such import. The wealth of 
our land can easily be doubled. Drainage is the 
first step. Use of carbonate of lime is the second 
step, and the third is the addition of humus to the 
soil, the use of phosphorus, in some instances of 
potash, and the sowing of alfalfa. Or, if there is 



132 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

prejudice against alfalfa, then sow clover, or any 
other useful legume. Sure it is that once the land 
is dry and sweet all the other good things will nat- 
urally follow in train. Bacterial life in the soil, 
sweet and abundant crops will follow with better 
animal life, more hope in the farmer 's breast, better 
schools and more children in them, better country 
roads (for there will be money to pay for them) and 
a higher level of life and living all around. 

Fertility and Abandoned Farms. — Prof. A. D. 
Selby of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, in 
an essay read before the Columbus Horticultural 
Society in 1907, on the question of '^ Abandoned 
Farms," makes the following significant remarks 
concerning the intimate relation between soil sweet- 
ness, soil bacteria and soil life, and the continuance 
and progress of farm occupancy. We quote: 

Vietch has made the following observations: "Broadly speak- 
ing, no more striking proof of the importance of maintaining an 
alkaline reaction basic condition of the soil is needed than is 
furnished by those soils which have become famous for their 
persistent fertility under exhaustive cultivation. The loess soil 
regur of India,. Tschernoseum of Russia, chalk of England, 
basalt of the far northwest, prairie of the middle west, blue 
grass of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the limestone valleys of 
the east are soils which are recognized as the most fertile in 
their respective localities, and have maintained their pre-emi- 
nence in fertility, in some cases for thousands of years. These 
soils are all basic in character, alkaline in reaction. The history 
of liming furnishes more general evidence upon the value of an 
alkaline reaction of the soil as one of the chief economic factors 
in crop production. * * * 

I believe it was Berthollet who observed that "la terre est 
quelque chose vivant" — "the soil is a living thing." In a much 
greater degree in our day than in Berthollet's day we recognize 
the soil as a living medium, whose biological content is now 
rich or now poor, here abundant and full of vigorous possibilities 



I 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 133 

or there marked by a paucity in both organisms and cultural 
possibilities. In whatever sense my hearers may conceive of the 
earth, whether here covered by a wide range of growing species 
of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses, and there bedecked within the 
range of a single farm with a number of fields in different crops, 
say of potatoes, corn, oats, wheat, clover, hay and the like, in 
like degree do I ask them to conceive of the vastly richer co- 
incident microscopic life present within these highly cultivated 
soils working ceaselessly and ever and anon multiplying 
in incalculable numbers, yet ever, so long as favorable cultural 
conditions are possible, maintaining themselves both as to the 
variety and number of sorts. 

Granting once this conception of the soil, we can understand 
that it is an enclosing nidus as well as a nutrient medium which 
supports this life within and upon it. This nidus may be here 
rendered highly acid in reaction by the decomposition of vegeta- 
ble tissues that are incorporated in it or there become excessively 
alkaline if no soil leaching may occur, as with certain alkali 
soils of the west. But conceive in this same connection the great 
difference as a result of years of culture that will come about in 
a soil deficient in available bases which may at all times be 
relied upon to correct automatically the acids produced by the 
fermentations and decompositions taking place in the soil, as 
compared with a soil at the outset very largely composed of in-* 
soluble silica or sand, and lacking in these same automatic cor- 
rections of cultural tendencies. I would here again insist that 
these abandoned farms as farm lands are abandoned, because 
they come soon to lack that biologic balance in these nidus rela- 
tions and in their contained organic life as well. 

May we not add that the practice of rotative farming, of 
which this region- shows an advanced type, has its justification 
and its profit in the very biologic balance maintained thereby? 
May we not go even further and point to continuous cropping in 
a single species as an extreme disturbance of this balance of soil 
organisms at the same time that it uses up particular soil con- 
stituents? I am convinced that in both cases we may reply in 
the affirmative and that fuller knowledge of soil life may show 
most strikingly the mistake of continuous cropping just as the 
breeding and introduction of so many soil diseases of the special 
crop have so often shown its economic disaster. 

What has just been stated with some fullness is not given as 
a proven thesis; rather as a suggestion that has for many years 
been driven step by step into the writer's soil conceptions in the 
course of somewhat extended observation and reading upon farm 



134 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and soil subjects. No pretensions are made to special qualifica- 
tions in this line, but none the less the writer is firmly convinced 
that more than soil chemistry, as it has been applied for a 
century, and more than soil physics, as so ably enlarged within 
two decades, is needed to furnish the explanation of the vital 
changes of the soil and their relation to successful agriculture. 

When the line between calcareous or limestone outcrop and 
sandstone outcrop marks as it does the line between profitable 
land and unprofitable land for certain crop purposes, as it seems 
to do in some portions of Ohio, it may not be wholly heretical to 
look to the calcareous compounds as offering at least a part of 
the explanation of the differences. When history adds the weight 
of evidence in the maintained fertility of particular calcareous 
soils the same question is again raised. And since the soil chem- 
ist and soil physicist have not marked out the differences either 
in kind or degree, an appeal to the soil biologist, to the soil 
bacteriologist should now be made. Chester of the Delaware sec- 
tion once made determinations of the number of bacteria in a 
gram of a certain Delaware soil before and at periods of a 
,few weeks after this soil had been treated to dressings of lime 
of various amounts and to Thomas slag. These were all 
in pots in comparison with untreated soil from the same source. 
The acidity of the original soil was determined and the amount 
jof correction afforded by the treatment was also determined by 
the same method; while the untreated soil maintained an almost 
uniform bacterial floral of about 520,000 bacteria per gram of 
soil, the soil treated to dressings of lime showeu only a partial 
correction of apparent acidity, but an enormous increase in the 
number of bacteria per gram of soil. With smaller amounts of 
lime, say at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre, the number of 
bacteria reached 2 to 3,000,000 per gram while. with 4,000 pounds 
of lime dressing per acre, the number of bacteria reach 5 to 
8,000,000 per gram of soil. If nothing more may be said, we cer- 
tainly conclude that these results are very suggestive. I wonder 
if we have really begun the study of the problem of applying 
lime to siliceous soils? 

Basic Slag a Source of Lime.— There is a phos- 
phatic fertilizer on the market in eastern states 
wherever convenient to ocean ports that combines 
very nicely available phosphorus and lime. That is 
the Thomas phosphate or basic slag meal. This 
stuff is a by-product of the steel mills of England 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 135 

and Germany. Our own iron ores, being poorer in 
phosphorus, do not make much of this substance. 
It is in great use in the Old World. Germany alone 
uses 2,000,000 tons of it each year. Wherever tested 
in America it seems to give very satisfactory re- 
sults. The writer tested it on Woodland Farm many 
years ago and never got stronger, healthier alfalfa 
than by its use. 

Basic slag usually contains from 16 to 20 per cent, 
of phosphoric acid with from 36 to 50 per cent, of 
lime. It is said that the phosphoric acid is in 
a form that is nearly all available, and it can- 
not revert in the soil nor leach away. There is 
hardly a farm east of the Missouri river where 
more phosphorus will not yield profit. Where 
freights are not too high, basic slag costs no more 
for the available phosphoric acid than any othei* 
source of phosphorus, and thus the lime is gotten 
free. It is advised that from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds 
per acre of basic slag be applied where alfalfa is 
sown. The large surplus of phosphorus thus given 
will not leach away, but will remain to feed the 
plants for some years, while the lime will help 
sweeten the soil. 

Basic slag costs too much for use at present in the 
cornbelt states. Where it is available is in New 
England, New York, and along the Atlantic sea- 
board. The price is about one dollar per unit of 
phosphoric acid ; that is, slag analyzing 17 per cent, 
available phosphoric acid would cost the consumer 
about $17 per ton. At present writing the Coe- 



136 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Mortimer Co. of New York import most of the 
Thomas phosphate. 

I have seen astonishing results from the use of 
this substance in England, where it is applied to 
meadows and pastures. In May in England one sees 
many manure distributers or fertilizer distributers 
going over the meadows and pastures. If he will 
take trouble to see What these machines are distrib- 
uting he will find in most instances it is basic slag 
that is being sown over the grass, sometimes with 
an addition of nitrate of soda or potash. Where the 
basic slag is put, very marked result is seen in the 
clovers that spring up in the grass. Even when no 
clover seeds are sown at all the result is often as 
though it had been sown to clovers, since a rich 
growth of them comes up and overtops the grass. The 
explanation is that the clovers or their seeds were 
already in the soil waiting for favorable conditions. 
The coming of the phosphorus fed the little plants, 
then the lime sweetened in a degree the soil, and the 
plants shot up and overtopped the grass. Thus the 
forage was much enriched, and later when the clover 
leaves and roots decayed the soil was so enriched 
that the grass was greatly thickened and strength- 
ened. When one is applying annual fertilization to 
his alfalfa meadows he may well consider the use 
of basic slag. 

Sour Soils. — It may be asked, '^How do soils be- 
come sour?" Any vegetable matter decaying in the 
soil will create an acid there. From sweetest apples 
is made the sourest vinegar. Tea leaves put in a 



J 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 137 

stone jug with water will make a sour vinegar, as the 
writer tested in his ranching days. Soil acids accu- 
mulate in soils that have no lime to neutralize them. 
Some plants grow well in sour soils, but not many 
useful plants. Wild things grow most in acid soils. 
Useful legumes grow poorly, if at all, with some ex- 
ceptions. And alfalfa refuses to grow at all with 
the soil sour. 

How is one to judge if his soil is sour! If he is 
experienced in soils he can tell by the character of 
plant growth on the land whether it is sweet or sour. 
Certain grasses betoken sour lands. Sorrel, or sheep 
sorrel (Rumex acetosellan) is pretty sure to come 
where there is lime deficiency, and sorrel and alfalfa 
do not go well together. There is a simple test that 
any one can make with litmus paper. This is a blue 
paper that can be bought of the druggist, usually in 
little slips, stoppered in glass bottles. One can take 
a slip of this paper and some of the suspected soil, 
having it moist, and insert half the length of the 
slip in the moist soil and let it remain in contact for 
half an hour. If there is any apparent redness in 
the paper be sure that there is acidity in that land. 
If the blue paper does not turn red the land is at 
least neutral. To test whether the land is actually 
alkaline with lime, which it ought to be to grow big 
alfalfa, expose a slip of the paper in quite weak 
vinegar only long enough to turn it red, then insert 
it in the soil and leave it for an hour, having the soil 
moist and in contact. If it then turns blue again 
you may be sure that you can grow it on that land. 



138 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

This then is true: tO' get maximum crops of 
alfalfa, to grow it as though you were growing a 
weed, make your land alkaline with lime, instead of 
having it acid. Then get it dry, add proper amounts 
of fertility, and the only troubles you will have will 
be in caring for the crops of hay and some day in 
breaking your tough alfalfa sod. 

Where the Lime Soils Lie. — ^Where probably 
are soils already filled sufficiently with lime, and 
where are they deficient from the standpoint of the 
alfalfa plant? 

In no part of the arid and semi-arid region has 
there been found evidence of any need of lime in 
the soil. Often there will be found from 1>^% to 
4% of carbonate of lime in tho'Se soils. This would 
be equivalent to from 30 to 80 tons of this substance 
in the top foot of soil of each acre. 

Coming eastward it is doubtful if any part of 
Nebraska, Kansas or the Dakotas need lime, except 
in their eastern portions or in especially sandy parts. 
It seems certain that the western portions of these 
states have lime enough already. Southeastern Kan- 
sas needs lime, so doubtless do parts of Oklahoma 
and the Indian Territory. 

Texas has a great diversity of soils. Parts of 
Texas are tremendously supplied with carbonate of 
lime. There alfalfa is almost a weed, suffering only 
from lack of sufficient rainfall. Eastern Texas, on 
the other hand, needs lime very badly indeed to 
make alfalfa thrive. Along rivers the alluvial soils 
are usually well stored with lime. 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 139 

Arkansas needs lime badly, except in her alluvial 
soils along the Mississippi Eiver. There one sees 
luxuriant alfalfa grown. Some of the ^'buckshot" 
soils of Arkansas have in them a great amount of 
lime carbonate and are destined to be great alfalfa- 
producing regions. The hill soils and uplands 
mostly are in need of more lime. There are excep- 
tional areas of upland that have already sufficient 
lime native in their soils, but these areas have not 
yet been accurately defined. 

Missouri grows alfalfa about in proportion to her 
lime content. In Pemiscot county along the Missis- 
sippi Eiver on ''buckshof soil alfalfa grows glori- 
ously. This soil contains about 1%% of calcium 
carbonate. Prof. M. F. Miller, of the Missouri Col- 
lege of Agriculture, reports that where about >4 of 
1% of carbonate of lime is in Missouri soils and 
humus is supplied through use of manures, alfalfa 
thrives. 

At this time (1909) it is unknown how much of 
Iowa would be helped by application of more lime. 
A letter giving results from Scott County is pre- 
sented on a preceding page. It is probable that 
over much of the prairie section of the state a light 
application, say one ton to three tons per acre of 
ground limestone, would put the right condition 
there for proper bacterial life in the soil. That is 
about all there is to it; lime enough is needed to 
make the earth swarm with the right sort of bac- 
teria. Lime enough is needed to correct any toxie 
principle exhaled from the alfalfa roots. 



140 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

All the region east of the Mississippi River will 
be helped by use of ground limestone, with the ex- 
ception of some favored spots where glaciers have 
already ground the rocks to powder and mixed it 
through the land. Anywhere that alfalfa fails to 
thrive after the land has been made dry and fairly 
rich one may know that carbonate of lime is de- 
ficient. Especially may one be sure that all soils 
along the Atlantic seaboard are deficient in car- 
bonate of lime, and by supplying this lack their 
capacity for crop production may be immensely 
increased. 

The Chemistry of Lime. — In '^The Breeder's Ga- 
zette'' of July 14, 1909, Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, agron- 
omist of the College of Agriculture, University of 
Illinois, sets forth clearly the chemistry of lime in 
its relation to soil improvement. I quote his state- 
ment complete : 

The use of lime for soil improvement is a subject which is dis- 
cussed with a great deal of misconception and confusion, due in 
large part to the erroneous practice of referring to lime as though 
it were a chemical element. 

Lime is not an element and consequently is not an element of 
plant food. It is an alkaline substance and is known in three 
forms: the carbonate, the oxide and the hydroxide. The carbonate 
is the natural form found in rocks and soils and it consists of 
either calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate or a double com- 
pound of calcium magnesium carbonate known as magnesian 
limestone or dolomite. When highly heated these carbonates lose 
their carbon dioxide as a volatile gas and the oxide or quicklime 
remains. This substance takes up water either from direct appli- 
cation or from the moisture of the atmosphere and changes into 
the form of hydroxide or water-slaked lime. On long exposure 
to the air the hydroxide will absorb carbon dioxide from the air 
and give off water, thus reforming the carbonate compound. Thus 
we may say that calcium carbonate (CaCOs), calcium oxide (CaO) 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 141 

and calcium hydroxide (CaOaHo) are ordinary forms of lime; 
also that magnesium carbonate (MgCOg), magnesium oxide 
(MgO) and magnesium hydroxide (MgOoHo) are the correspond- 
ing magnesium compounds, more or less of which are contained 
in magnesian limes, of which the most common form is calcium 
magnesium carbonate CaMg( 003)0. Any of these compounds 
may be used for neutralizing acids and thus for correcting the 
acidity of the soil. 

If it can be kept clearly in mind that these are the substances 
properly called lime, and that nothing else is lime, much confu- 
sion can be avoided. However, a compound properly named cal- 
cium chloride (CaCL) is often called chloride of lime and yet it 
contains no lime whatever and does not possess the property of 
lime. In other words, it is not an alkaline substance and has no 
power to correct the acidity of the soil. It does contain the ele- 
ment calcium which is also contained in the ordinary forms of 
lime, but the element calcium is not lime. 

Now let us turn to the subject of plant food. There are 10 
essential elements of plant food and it is true that calcium is one 
of these elements and that it is required to a greater or less ex- 
tent by all agricultural plants, but it is not at all essential that 
calcium as an element of plant food be applied to the soil in any 
form of lime. It may be applied as calcium sulphate or as calcium 
phosphate, and it even exists in many soils which are absolutely 
devoid of lime which are even strongly acid and markedly in need 
of lime, but which, nevertheless, may contain abundance of cal- 
cium for plant food in the form of acid calcium silicates. Thus 
the acid soils of Illinois which require an application of several 
tons of ground limestone to correct their acidity contain several 
tons of the element calcium in the plowed soil of an acre. In 
some cases soils are found which are not only deficient in lime 
but also deficient in the element calcium and on such soils the 
application of any of the calcium limes would furnish both lime 
for correcting soil acidity and the element calcium for plant food. 

Summary. — Alfalfa is one of the most beautiful, 
most valuable and most profitable crops in the 
world. It makes the most hay. The hay is the rich- 
est and best. It enriches the soil on which it grows. 
It endures for many years with one sowing. It has 
redeemed the arid and semi-arid west. It is coming 
into every state in the Union. 



142 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Many needless failures in attempts to grow alfalfa 
have resulted in eastern states. Alfalfa need not be 
a hard plant to establish. It is hardier than red 
clover. It withstands any drouth. It withstands 
cold better than any other clover. In some regions 
alfalfa seems native to the soil. In other regions 
all the nursing in the world fails to establish it. Why 
is this difference? 

All natural alfalfa countries have the soil filled 
with carbonate of lime. There may also be other 
alkalies in it, and sometimes injurious alkalies, but 
carbonate of lime is the useful thing found. Wherever 
the soil is well stored with carbonate of lime alfalfa 
grows like a weed, if other conditions are good. 
Where the soil is acid no amount of manure will 
keep alfalfa alive very long. 

Carbonate of lime is the sort that God put in the 
soil when He made it. Burned lime is man's at- 
tempt at improvement. Burned lime may help and 
may harm. Carbonate of lime, that is, raw ground 
limestone, never harms soil. It cannot harm soil, 
use it as freely as you like. One could put on 50 
tons to the acre and do the soil no injury. It would 
merely lie in the soil inert till it was required. Car- 
bonate of lime is needed to make the bacteria of 
alfalfa thrive. It is needed to free the soil from 
poisons that destroy both bacteria and alfalfa. Car- 
bonate of lime stops waste of fertility, makes vege- 
table matter into humus, arrests fleeing nitrogen. 

Ground limestone will make alfalfa grow without 
fail, if a few other easily met conditions are com- 



CARBONATE OP LIME. 143 

plied with. The amount needed will vary; all soils 
have already some lime in them. Where there is 
marked deficiency apply 100 pounds of ground lime- 
stone to the square rod for alfalfa growing. Always 
leave a strip unlimed to note the result. 

Here are the few simple rules needed to assure 
alfalfa : 

First, water let out of the soil and air let in by 
drains. 

Second, soil made alkaline, not neutral, with 
ground limestone. 

Third, soil with some humus in it, preferably from 
stable manure. 

Fourth, soil with phosphorus and a little potash, 
the phosphorus preferably from bone meal or basic 
slag, though acid phosphate will answer. And use 
enough of it. Alfalfa feeds heavily on phosphorus. 

Fifth, good seed mixed with some soil from a 
good alfalfa field or from a sweet clover patch, sown 
on a deeply plowed, firm, fine seed bed, any time 
between April and September. 

Ground limestone insures vigorous alfalfa. Vig- 
orous alfalfa is the most energetic soil enricher in 
the world. When it has stood a few years if it is 
then plowed and planted to corn the result is simply 
marvelous. 

A field well set in productive alfalfa will yield 5 
tons to the acre. This is easily worth $10 to $15 
per ton, as alfalfa hay is nearly of the same value 
as a feed as wheat bran. Thus you note that it 
yields good interest on a valuation of $250 per acre. 



144 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Common farm lands do not pay well. Invest in 
limestone, manure, phosphorus, alfalfa seed, make 
over that $75 land into $250 land and farming will 
pay you. 

Visiting a Stone Quarry. — A visit to a limestone 
quarry is an interesting thing. These thoughts 
came one day to the writer as he strolled with a 
company of Ohio State University agricultural stu- 
dents beside the quarries at Columbus, Ohio. A 
great mass of limestone rock rises to within a few 
feet of the surface of the soil. Here the Scioto 
river, cutting its way through, has eroded a chan- 
nel, exposing cliffs of limestone; here have come 
quarry men seeking to mine the rock for building, 
for road ballast and for grinding to put upon the 
soil. 

Upon this scene burst a class of students, eager 
and curious tO' note everything, like happy children 
out of school, climbing over the heaps of debris, 
shouting merry jests and making exclamations of 
surprise as they note the many curious revelations. 

Here, by the railroad embankment, newly made, 
spring up blue grass and white clovers, their roots 
in the crumbling limestone of the ballast, eloquently 
telling how waste soils may be restored and covered 
over with vegetation where lime is. To our left a 
tangled jungle of old dry weed stalks standing upon 
heaps of limestone debris, and as we plunge within 
this jungle we find the weeds are mostly sweet 
clover, growing huge and lusty, laden last summer 
with flower and yet bearing seeds. Think of the 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 145 

myriads of bacteria on the roots of this sweet clover, 
busily soil building, getting this waste land ready 
for more useful things. 

Now we stand at the brink of the quarry, a great 
hole in the ground. Our gray haired teacher asks 
us if we know what is the most durable of all man's 
work upon earth, and smilingly he tells us that the 
most permanent thing that man has ever yet 
achieved is a hole in the ground. But, think of 
the human energy required to quarry and cart away 
these millions of tons of limestone that once filled 
this excavation ; and think further than that, to the 
time when this part of the earth was a shallow sea 
where warm waves rocked endlessly and little shell- 
fish swam and crawled, and dying one by one, be- 
queathed their bones to make the limestone that was 
one day to become this rock; and next, the quarry- 
men, short, thick, brown men, hugely muscled, 
pounding away upon the rocks as though they loved 
it. They too tell the story of lime, for is not the 
island of Sicily one limestone rock! Yes, and these 
sturdy peasants tell another story, the story of the 
vigor that may come from simple living. For cen- 
turies their food has been macaroni and olive oil, 
with, let us hope, an orange for dessert, and yet to- 
day they can in physical energy far surpass the 
meat-eating American. And what are they doing, 
these swarthy Italians, with dynamite mightily shat- 
tering this rock, with steam locomotives dragging it 
to the crushers, and there dumping it into yawning 
jaws that mightily bite and chew it until it is shaped 



146 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

for railway ballast or for concrete construction! 
And here is another machine, more interesting yet, 
a machine of prophecy, a machine meaning great 
things to the farmer, for in this machine, so small 
and apparently insignificant, the rock is ground 
rapidly into powder and this powder through end- 
less carriers is loaded into cars, no man's hands 
touching it after it is first dumped, and from this 
mill it goes forth by cars to the fields of Ohio. Think 
what this means; somewhere an old sour clay field 
refusing to grow clover, refusing to grow anything 
rich enough to yield profit, sending no boys to col- 
lege, giving little hope to the owner, and now under 
one shower of this ground limestone will come the 
miracle. The sourness will disappear, clover will 
grow, the bees will hum, the mower will click, the 
boy will whistle, books will come into the home and 
magazines, and let us hope some lad from that farm 
will start to the university. 

Building Soils to Stay Built. — My father was a 
firm believer in the idea that a soil could be so en- 
riched that it would afterward stay rich, that it 
would gain momentum enough, so to speak, so it 
would keep on caring for itself afterward. There- 
fore he would apply manure in large amounts to 
one spot of land after another, seeking to establish 
this condition of things. 

There is much basic truth in his theory and his 
practice was not far wrong. When much manure is 
worked into sweet soil, a soil well stored with car- 
bonate of lime, there is set up there a laboratory 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 147 

where fertility is steadily manufactured. There 
will be air in such a soil and bacteria in enormous 
abundance, among them the useful bacteria that live 
upon any sort of decaying humus in the soil and 
gather nitrogen from the air, the new-found azobac- 
ter. Thus there is a perpetual fertility-gathering 
plant established right in the soil. 

It all depends, after all, on the possession by the 
soil of a large amount of carbonate of lime. If that 
is absent the fertility put there in excess of the 
needs of the plants soon leaches away and is gone. 
The writer has traveled in lands very deficient in 
lime, so deficient that the well water was almost as 
pure as distilled water, and there has noted that not 
only were the fields incredibly poor, but even such 
places as barn lots had in them very little richness 
indeed, though manure had been wasted therein for 
a century or more. 

Think how old the world is ! And since the rocks 
cooled and vegetation started to cover the earth 
roots have been decaying in the soil and leaves fall- 
ing thereon with stems and branches and all man- 
ner of debris. Enough vegetable matter, enough 
humus-forming material, has fallen to the earth and 
become buried in the earth nearly everywhere, to 
make the soil incredibly rich. Instead we commonly 
find even wild soils rather poor. Why? Because of 
the lack of carbonate of lime. That is the one thing 
that can 'Ox fertility and hold it for use in future 
years. 

On the old farm at Arlington, near "Washington, it 



148 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

is said that manure enough has been applied since 
it has been in possession of the United States to 
cover the soil with a layer several feet deep, and 
yet the land is of only very moderate fertility. Why 1 
Because it is so lacking in carbonate of lime. 

Coming back to my father's idea that land could 
be given such an impetus towards fertility and pro- 
ductiveness that it would ^^keep a-going'' it should 
be said that it is only a partial truth, after all. 
Doubtless the nitrogen content of the soil can be 
maintained. In order to do this leguminous crops 
should come with somewhat frequent recurrence, 
since legumes restore nitrogen faster than anything 
else we know. And alfalfa is the most vigorous ni- 
trogen gatherer at our command. No one can store 
a soil with fertility and draw upon it with maize 
or oats or wheat or timothy grass without rapidly 
depleting his store. All these things are s'oil rob- 
bers; they do not create or secrete fertility for the 
soil. 

Phosphorus Needed. — Nor can legumes or alfalfa 
do impossibilities. The mineral elements are pres- 
ent in fixed amounts. Of potash one may have a 
great abundance and on many soils need never 
worry nor concern himself, but phosphorus is usual- 
ly a thing needed and not in sufficient supply. It must 
be remembered that plants cannot build their tissues, 
form their blooms and mature their seeds without 
using in regular '^ balanced ration" all the elements 
of plant food. They cannot make use of an excess 
of nitrogen profitably when phosphorus is in scant 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 149 

supply. Thus on Woodland Farm, whicli is rapidly 
becoming fertile — nearly as fertile, probably, as it 
is profitable to make farm land — we find it wise each 
year to purchase this one element, phosphorus. We 
put it on when we start alfalfa. We put it on the 
old alfalfa meadows. It pays largely in increased 
yield and in increased vigor of the plants. This 
makes the alfalfa able to resist weeds and rust and 
all the enemies of it. And once on the farm much 
of the phosphorus is retained, is used over and over 
again. When we cut the hay we take up phosphorus, 
and if we were to sell the hay this would be drained 
away and lost, but when we feed the hay on the 
farm, as we try to do with most of our crop, we 
sell away only as much phosphorus as is contained 
in the wool and mutton of the lambs and in their 
bones, and what goes to the manure is pretty care- 
fully saved and put back on the land. Thus our 
store increases steadily. 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 

I have dwelt so long on the subject of carbonate of 
lime that I must now take occasion to emphasize that 
lime is not sufficient plant food. Lime promotes 
bacterial life and saves plant food and makes it 
available and helps it accumulate. After one has his 
soil well filled with carbonate of lime, then he is 
ready to begin to build it. If nature had filled that 
soil with carbonate of lime ages ago she would have 
gone on with the work and stored it with vegetable 
matter, humus. Then there would be now in that 
soil nitrogen and bacteria in abundance, and prob- 
ably abundant phosphorus and potash as well, since 
phosphorus is nearly always in pretty good supply 
where carbo^nate of lime is plentiful in the soil. 

Let us get clearly in mind here that liming is only 
a step in the soil-building process ; it is the founda- 
tion of things, as it were. And now again let us re- 
peat that soils are living things. The productive- 
ness of the soil is dependent upon the numbers of 
bacteria found therein. Bacterial life is not abun- 
dant in soils that are deficient in humus, vegetable 
matter. 

Stable Manure Best Source. — The very best source 
of humus is stable manure. If the reader has fol- 
lowed the story of Woodland Farm, related in the be- 
ginning of this book, he will have in mind the great 
part that manure played in building the alfalfa 

(150) 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 151 

fields. Early in our experience we learned that 
wherever we applied a good coat of manure, there 
we got luxuriant alfalfa. This led us to feed lambs 
and cattle and to save the manure with care. Later 
study of the use of manure showed us that there was 
great waste when manure was let stand in the yard 
till fall before it was hauled out. Therefore we made 
practice of drawing it at once to the fields and 
spreading it nearly as fast as it was made. This 
practice we yet observe. 

Manure in the soil does very much more than add 
fertility. Probably we do not know nearly all that 
it does. First, doubtless it directly feeds the soil. 
There is nitrogen in manure, some small amount of 
potash, and a little more phosphorus, though not 
nearly so much phosphorus as there should be to 
make a balanced ration for plants. But manure 
brings in myriads of bacteria. These bacteria aid 
plant life and plant growth. Where manure is the 
special nitrifying bacteria abound. The bacteria too 
that attach themselves to alfalfa roots and clover 
abound much more in soils filled with manure. 

Manure Brings Inoculation. — It is seldom if ever 
necessary to inoculate land for alfalfa when it has 
been well enriched with manure. I once saw a field 
sown to alfalfa in Canada that was so well inocu- 
lated that in six weeks after the alfalfa was sown 
the tiny nodules were found on the roots, and this 
field was the first sown in that neighborhood, nor 
was it artificially inoculated. It had simply been 
well manured. In other states I have seen the same 



152 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

curious result. In Iowa on the experiment station 
farm at Ames a field was sown in alfalfa. All the 
seed was sown the same day and in no> way was the 
treatment of one part of the field different from 
the treatment of any other part, yet there was se- 
cured a fine stand of thrifty alfalfa on one side of 
the field and very thin and poor alfalfa on the other 
side. The explanation seemed to be that on a previ- 
ous year one side of this field had been manured and 
sugar beets grown thereon. Yet all the field seemed 
very fertile and Director C. F. Curtiss thought that 
planted in corn all of the field was rich enough to 
grow 80 bushels tO' the acre. But that addition of 
some stable manure a year or two previously made 
one side of the field eminently fit for alfalfa, while 
the other side remained in unprofitable condition so 
far as alfalfa was concerned. From experience I 
feel sure that I had rather take a rather poor piece 
of land, well manured, for alfalfa growing, than a 
naturally rich piece of land with no manure. In 
truth some of the heaviest alfalfa I have ever seen 
grew on Woodland Farm on soil naturally very in- 
fertile, though well filled with lime, after the field 
had been well coated with manure, the manure 
turned under deep and alfalfa sown. 

One day I was plowing in this self same field when 
a curious thought came. A flock of black birds was 
following the plow, hopping eagerly along and 
keeping up animated discourse, meanwhile busily 
searching for something. What they were after, of 
course, was earth worms. The thought then came, 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 153 

'*Wliy, liere is the best indication yet of whether 
alfalfa will thrive in a field. If the black birds fol- 
low the plowman it is sure to grow ; if no black birds 
come let him beware how he sows alfalfa." It is 
indeed a true indication for all eastern soils; there 
may be lands in the South and West where the earth 
worm is not a sure indication. Earth worms thrive 
only where there is humus in the land. They do a 
most useful work in opening the soil by means of 
their tunnels to let in air and let out water. They 
bury up vegetable matter and promote bacterial 
life. Where earth worms are the soil is evidently 
drained, although it may not be drained deep 
enough. 

Alfalfa Loves Rich Soils. — The plain truth is that 
thousands of men all over the eastern states of 
America have tried to grow alfalfa on land too poor 
for it. Alfalfa loves fertile soil. In turn it adds 
greatly to the fertility of any land on which it grows. 
It is an energetic soil enricher, but it will not en- 
rich poor soils. That may be a pity, but it is after 
all in the order of Nature. ^ ' To him who hath shall 
be given. ' ' One must have fertility in order to trap 
more fertility. No other available plant will gather 
so much fertility as the alfalfa plant. A field of it 
will gather nitrogen largely, the hay may be fed, 
the manure saved, another field enriched and sown 
to alfalfa and thus the fertility will spread from the 
one spot of infection till all the farm is covered. 
But only by beginning right, by making one field 
rich and dry and sweet, getting it set in alfalfa. 



154 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

then from the manure of that field spreading to an- 
other, can a man succeed. It is easy once you get 
started. The farther you go the faster the work 
proceeds. I write now of ratlier poor eastern 
soils. Of course there are soils already so rich in 
all needed elements of plant food that it is idle to 
add more. Men owning such soils are more blessed 
than they probably realize. 

Soils Devoid of Humus. — Will not alfalfa grow in 
soils devoid of humus? It is an interesting ques- 
tion. I feel that it will, under certain conditions. 
There are desert soils that would seem to be almost 
devoid of vegetable matter, yet fully charged with 
mineral salts and in these I have seen the most tre- 
mendous alfalfa that I have ever seen. Perhaps 
there was more humus in that gray-colored lime- 
impregnated alkaline soil than I thought, but it 
certainly was as hard as brick when dry and of the 
color of lime mortar. It is sure, however, that in 
eastern soils humus is most desirable; how indis- 
pensable it is remains to be worked out. 

An Example of Farm Practice. — On Woodland 
Farm t'here is one 60-acre field commonly called the 
Gill field. It has not long been a part of the farm. 
The soil was clay, some of it white and some of it 
black. A part of the field was low and peaty. For 
many years it had probably not paid the cost of cul- 
tivation. It had had little or no manure since the 
forest was cleared away. 

The first step was to get rid of surplus water and 
miles of ditches were laid, one of them to give out- 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 155 

let being for some distance 10 to 12 feet deep. The 
usual depth was 3 to 4 feet. Then a very little stable 
manure was spread over the field and red clover 
was sown with beardless spring barley as a nurse 
crop. With the clover was sown a fertilizer com- 
posed of tankage and acid phosphate. The barley 
was cut otf for hay and the clover came on and made 
a fair growth. It was a good stand and had a 
healthy look, which no one remembered seeing on 
this field for many years. The clover was cut for 
hay and seed, and a trifle more of manure spread 
over the ground. It is evident that on a 60 acre field 
one will not strew manure very thickly unless he has 
access to a very large store, and only the farm barns 
and feeding yards could be drawn upon. 

The land was then plowed and planted to corn, 
making about 55 bushels per acre. Its previous crop 
had been about 20 bushels. On the corn stubble 
more manure was spread in 1904 and again the land 
was sown to clover with a nurse crop of beardless 
spring barley. This time it was hoped that the field 
might be dry enough and fertile enough to take al- 
falfa, so a mixture of alfalfa was put with the 
clover, about 10 per cent or a little more. Again the 
barley was made into hay. 

This time the clover was a glorious success, yield- 
ing more than double what it had yielded the first 
year and the alfalfa came in strong for the second 
cutting. It was vigorous over nearly all the field. 
In the spring of 1906 the field was again sprinkled 
somewhat with manure and plowed for corn. The 



156 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

yield that year was about 90 bushels. Again with 
a light coating of manure it was put in corn. This 
time the yield was 85 bushels. For the corn crop a 
dressing of 400 pounds per acre of raw Tennessee 
rock phosphate was applied. Just what effect this 
had we do not know, as we left no test strips. It 
probably was of material benefit, however. 

Once more a light application of manure was 
made. In truth the applications of manure were all 
light except on certain spots of exceptionally poor 
white clay. The land was plowed again and seeded 
(in April, 1908), to alfalfa with a nurse crop, as 
usual, of beardless spring barley. With the seeding 
was sown fertilizer, plain acid phosphate, analyzing 
about 16 per cent available phosphoric acid, at the 
rate of 250 pounds per acre. 

1908 proved a very dry summer yet a splendid 
stand resulted over the whole field. A crop of bar- 
ley hay was cut and later a light crop of alfalfa 
hay, probably not quite one ton to the acre. From 
the window where I sit I look out afield across this 
very stretch of land. It is (May 5, 1909,) a glorious 
sight. Aside from a few wet pond holes there is not 
a square foot of the land that is not covered with 
green and growing alfalfa plants. That field should 
make near 5 tons of hay this year. And every year 
since the manure spreader started over the tiled 
fields the land has paid well. 

It is not probable that alfalfa would have made a 
strong growth on this field without this slow bring- 
ing-up process. The land was too run down, too de- 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 157 

pleted of Immus. Could more manure have been 
spared doubtless the field could have been gotten 
ready for alfalfa earlier, but it was not available, 
so red clover, which is less exacting, came in first 
and paved the way. 

Methods of Using Manure. — ^While there can be 
no question of the value of manure for alfalfa yet 
there are several ways of using it, some much more 
successful than others. It is seldom good practice to 
apply heavy coats of manure and at once sow al- 
falfa. The trouble is from the strong growth of 
weeds and annual grasses that will result and which 
may in part smother the alfalfa. Manure is often 
filled with weed seeds, has tendency to rush rapidly 
all weeds that naturally spring up and these worth- 
less things outgrow the little alfalfa plants. Weeds 
may usually be subdued by mowing off the field 
two or three times during the season, but there is 
danger in mowing young alfalfa at the wrrong time 
which sometimes destroys it. Briefly, alfalfa ought 
not to be cut till little shoots appear on the bases of 
the stems. These shoots appear as buds which de- 
velop into new stems. Before these shoots appear 
it sometimes quite destroys alfalfa to cut it off ; this 
is especially true the first season of its existence. So 
one can not mow off weeds till these little shoots 
come. The writer has more than once seen efforts 
made to force alfalfa to grow by heavy manuring 
when what it really needed was liming. The only 
result was a worse crowding by weeds. 

It is. very much better to apply a heavy coat of 



158 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

manure and plow it under the preceding year, then 
plant a crop of corn and keep the crop absolutely 
clean of weeds and grass so that no seeds will be 
formed. This gives pretty clean land for alfalfa 
sowing the succeeding year. Impossible to keep 
corn land clean, say you? It is neither impossible 
nor very difficult. On Woodland Farm it has been 
found that about 5 plowings with two-horse culti- 
vators followed with two goings through with one- 
horse garden cultivators of the many shoveled type, 
kept the corn almost absolutely clean, and men with 
hoes rapidly completed the work. A good stand 
of corn greatly helps here. 

Eradicating Fox-tail Grass. — Fox-tail or pigeon 
grass (Chaetochloa glauca) is one of the worst ene- 
mies of alfalfa in all eastern America. It is an an- 
nual grass that becomes very thick in young mead- 
ows and sometimes in old ones. Mowing it off does 
not prevent its going to seed, in fact mowing ij; off 
only seems to make it grow thicker. It cannot be 
eradicated by disking in new alfalfa fields. Take it all 
in all it is the worst pest of alfalfa in the eastern 
states. Crab grass is next to it, but crab grass does 
not trouble where there is plenty of lime in the soil, 
while fox-tail is no respecter of lime or anything 
else. 

Fortunately fox-tail has its weak point; its seeds 
do not live long in the soil but soon germinate there 
and grow. On Woodland Farm we have kept a corn 
field absolutely clean for one year, and next season 
sown the land to alfalfa, with the result that we did 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 159 

not see a single plant of fox-tail on a square rod, 
and this over a great part of the field. Just destroy 
the plant absolutely before it seeds during one year 
and you have it conquered. 

Gro'wing Humus-making Crops. — Not every farm- 
er has access to a manure heap. Some have too 
much land, some have too few animals. Thus many 
who wish to grow alfalfa desire to grow on the land 
some crop that will help fill the soil with needed 
humus. Wliat is available for this purpose! Very 
much depends here upon the location. 

Cowpeas. — In Tennessee, and probably in Ken- 
tucky, the cowpea is a good forerunner of alfalfa. 
The cowpea has several excellent qualities. If a 
vigorous growing variety is chosen it covers the soil 
all over and shades it. This shade promotes the 
gathering of nitrogen as we have long known. The 
pea vines smother weeds and so help clean the land. 
Their roots, abundantly supplied with nodules, 
gather nitrogen and store it in the soil. After cow- 
peas the soil is also much more friable than it was 
before. The vines may be left to lay upon the land, 
disking them and turning them under, or may be 
cut off for hay. Certainly one gets more humus to 
turn them under. In the South a crop of cowpeas 
may be grown and the land plowed and sown to al- 
falfa the same year. This is not practicable north 
of the Ohio River. Morgan found in Tennessee a 
very great increase in alfalfa yield when it was 
sown after cowpeas. 

Turning Under Green Cowpeas. — There seems a 



160 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

somewhat greater danger of souring land when 
green crops are turned under than when they are 
left to ripen and decay somewhat on the surface be- 
fore being turned under. It is not easy to accouiit 
for this fact. It is always well when turning under 
cover crops where alfalfa is to be sawn to use a 
larger application of lime than one otherwise would 
use, since thus he avoids the danger of souring the 
land. 

Cowpeas however, may do soils good and may pos- 
sibly do them harm. It has been taught that cow- 
peas always build soil, whether the vines are taken 
away or left on the soil to be turned under. Prof. 
C. A. Mooers of the Tennessee Station has shown 
that cowpeas when cut and removed from the soil 
have a marked effect in depleting it . of fertility. 
Probably they rob it rapidly of available phos- 
phorus. It is plain that when cowpeas are grown 
to prepare the land for alfalfa seeding they ought to 
be turned under, not taten away from the land. 
*'Cut them and put the manure backT' Yes, but 
would it come back! 

The Soy Bean. — An easier crop to grow than the 
cowpea is the soy bean, and it also is a soil enricher 
and affords much humus when turned under. Soy 
beans are of many sorts. The large growing kinds, 
like the Mammoth Yellow, make the most vegetation 
for turning under, while smaller growing sorts make 
most seed in northern latitudes. Soy beans to do 
well need soil inoculation. It will come of itself if 
they are continuously grown on the same land. Soy 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 161 

beans are drilled in drills about 24 inches apart and 
cultivated carefully till they cover the land, when 
their shade suppresses weeds. 

To get a money crop out of soy beans and yet 
have a hot of humus-making material is easy. One 
does it with hogs, turning them in after the bean 
crop is mature and letting them harvest the beans. 
Afterward the stems remaining with many leaves 
will be plowed down. 

Soy beans respond well to fertilization with phos- 
phatic fertilizers. The larger grows the soil-build- 
ing crop, whether of soy beans, cowpeas, crimson 
clover or anything else, the larger the alfalfa will 
grow after it. Therefore fertilizer applied to the 
cover crop is all to the good. 

Crimson Clover {Trifolium incarnatum) . — One of 
the most charmingly beautiful clovers is crimson 
clover, the trifolium of the English farmer. It is 
an annual clover. Sown in summer it makes a fall 
and winter growth (if there is any open weather) 
blooms in May, ripens its seed and dies. It is of 
no use sown in the spring. It is much used in Eng- 
land, France and the Middle Atlantic States of 
America. It is a good forerunner of alfalfa. This 
plant is remarkably cold-resistant and in suitable 
soils grows during every warm spell of winter. It 
enriches soils admirably if it has itself the right 
bacteria at work on its roots. On some soils where 
it is new it needs inoculation. Crimson clover is 
sown in late summer or early fall, usually as a 
catch crop after corn or garden truck. It makes 



162 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

rapid growth during the late season and starts early 
in spring. 

It is easily established if sown in late July or 
August. It will not endure heat so is of no use 
sown in the spring. It grows during cool weather. 
On the other hand it will not endure extremely 
cold weather, and is usually killed by repeated freez- 
ing and thawing of spring in the region of the corn- 
belt. It is especially at home in Maryland, Dela- 
ware, New Jersey, Virginia, and in fact all along 
the Atlantic seaboard. There it is an admirable 
catch crop and forerunner of alfalfa when one is 
desirous of bringing in large areas to meadow with 
least possible delay. 

Eoberts shows that the fall growth of crimson 
clover in New York, taken on Nov. 2, yielded as 
much as 155 lbs. of nitrogen per acre and doubt- 
less the spring growth would have yielded in ad- 
dition even a greater amount had not the plants 
killed out during the freezes of spring. Nitrogen is 
difficult to buy for less than 15 cents per pound and 
often costs much more, so it is clear that the crim- 
son clover had done a lot of work at nitrogen-gath- 
ering very economically indeed. 

Using Crimson Clover. — A good way to use crim- 
son clover is to sow it in the corn at last working, 
or to disk up an oat or wheat stubble and sow it 
there. The latter way will give sure results. Use 
phosphorus in some form to stimulate the crimson 
clover, since the better it thrives the more it will 
do for you and all will be kept in the soil for the 



I 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 163 

use of the succeeding alfalfa in any case. Acid plios- 
pliate works well with crimson clover; put on 200 
pounds of it per acre, choosing always a grade 
analyzing a good percentage of available phosphoric 
acid. It likes a good seed bed too. Mix with 
it 10 per cent of alfalfa, and if the land has never 
had on it either alfalfa or crimson clover, get some 
infected earth from an old field of each of the plants. 

Infecting a Field. — One can use rather a small 
amount of earth and get good results in inoculat- 
ing a field if he does it in the right manner. Let 
him get as little as 100 pounds of earth from where 
crimson clover has been grown and 50 pounds of 
earth from an alfalfa field or a sweet clover patch 
and mix these together and pulverize them well. Do 
this away from the sun. Then mix the crimson 
clover seed, say 15 pounds and say 2 pounds of 
alfalfa seed with the 150 pounds of infected soil. 
Sow this altogether on an acre of land. Sow it 
if you can late in the day, or at any event follow 
the sower with a harrow that will at once stir the 
land and cover seed and infected soil. Sunlight is 
fatal to inoculation. 

The result will be that both sorts of plants will 
grow well together and the alfalfa plants, while 
much more feeble in growth than the crimson clover, 
will yet hold its own pretty bravely and will be- 
come inoculated and thus will prepare the land for 
a single seeding of alfalfa next year. 

Crimson Clover for Pasture and Hay.^ — The crim- 
son clover will make good pasture in the fall and 



164 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

early spring. Do not pasture it much if you wish 
the full benefit of its nitrogen-gathering and humus- 
making. Before the seed forms, and as early as it 
flowers, it can he made into hay. Crimson clover hay 
is nutritious, only when cut too late it has a bad 
habit of sometimes killing animals by forming hair 
balls in their stomachs, so it is best to let it 
ripen and take off a crop of seed, putting the straw 
back, or else to plow it under and use all the growth 
as a manure. Do not expect crimson clover to do 
much without inoculation. This comes in more 
easily with crimson clover than with most other 
legumes. 

Alfalfa FoUoiving Crimson Clover, — As soon as 
the crimson clover is turned under begin cultiva- 
tion of the land and get it in fine tilth, destroying 
any weeds that may spring up. Do not sow the 
alfalfa seed till the soil is well stored with moisture. 
After every rain go over the field with some efficient 
sort of harrow. If the land is not hard a spike 
tooth drag harrow is one of the best implements 
of summer culture. Should rain make it hard and 
in danger of baking, the disk or spring tooth may 
be needed. 

The lime may be put on now, though it would 
have been better to have put it on before the crim- 
son clover was sown so that it could be doing its 
quiet work of sweetening the land. 

As soon as the land is stored with moisture, say 
by the last week in July or some time in August, 
the alfalfa may be sown alone. One ought to ob- 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOII.. 165 

serve carefully tlie scattered alfalfa plants that 
grew in the crimson clover to see if tliey were in- 
oculated, so as to know whether to do anything 
further toward inoculation of the land before sow- 
ing to alfalfa alone. 

Nodules on the Roots. — If he finds the alfalfa 
plants vigorous, of thrifty growth and dark green 
color, he may make a good guess that they are safely 
inoculated. If they are feeble, pale, spindling, yel- 
low, he may well doubt the inoculation having 
^^aken." To make sure let him very carefully dig 
up alfalfa plants and wash off the earth from their 
finer root hairs. The nodules are easily seen when 
present, though one can seldom get them by pulling 
up a plant, since they are so easily stripped off, 
their attachment to the roots being delicate. They 
are of light color, about the size of alfalfa seeds or 
a little smaller and are sometimes, when conditions 
are good and lime is plentiful in the soil, set on 
like bunches of grapes, though usually they are 
found singly on the little root hairs. 

Crimson Cloven' in Conclusion. — Crimson clover 
is a plant better adapted to cool weather than to hot, 
to England and France, where it thrives, than to 
regions where grows the royal maize plant. In Eng- 
land it is termed trifolium and is highly esteemed 
for soiling in May. It thrives best in sandy soils 
along the Atlantic seaboard and will probably never 
be of much importance west of the Allegheny Moun- 
tains or north of the Ohio River. But in Virginia 
it is a great aid in getting alfalfa set on old fields 



166 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

needing humns sadly. It has failed in countless in- 
stances because of lack of inoculation. If one wishes 
to grow it he should either inoculate with soil from 
some successful crimson clover field or should per- 
sist year after year in growing it on the same soil 
till at last the inoculation comes. There seems 
a wild clover along the Atlantic Coast that carries 
the same bacteria, as crimson clover but this is not 
found west of the Alleghenies. With proper inocu- 
lation crimson clover will succeed over a far wider 
territory than is now known or supposed. 

Melilotus or Sweet Clover. — What is a weed? A 
plant out of place? Weeds there are and weeds. It 
one must have them, and usually he will, he could 
hardly have a better one than Melilotus alba, or 
white sweet clover. There are two sorts of sweet 
clover, one with white blooms and one with yellow. 
The yellow-flowered sort is Melilotus officinalis. It 
is not so good as the white nor so common. Sweet 
clover looks like alfalfa. Indeed, it is a sort of first 
cousin to the alfalfa plant. The main difference is 
that it has a less deeply boring root stock and is a 
biennial, or a two-year plant, while alfalfa may live 
half a century. Sweet clover is a good sort of weed, 
because it is not unsightly and it feeds the bees and 
wherever it grows it mightily enriches land. It 
loves lime land and hard places along roadsides and 
on railway embankments. It will grow 6 or 8 feet 
high in favorable places or if it is cut down close it 
will bear seed when only just above the earth. 

It was Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins who first called at- 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 167 

tention to the fact that alfalfa and sweet clover 
bear the same bacteria on their rootlets and that 
sweet clover inoculates land for alfalfa. (Breeder's 
Gazette, Sept. 16, 1903.) So there is quite a use- 
ful combination of facts. Sweet clover is very 
hardy, it will grow on poor soil, it enriches soil very 
much and it improves the physical condition of soils, 
then it inoculates the land for alfalfa. In truth 
many fine fields of alfalfa have had their start from 
inoculation taken from sweet clover weed patches 
along roadsides. 

Melilotus has never been treated as a farm crop in 
the Northo In the South it is much used in Alabama 
and Mississippi, both as pasture and for hay. No 
better authority on melilo>tus could be found than 
Prof. J. F. Duggar, Director of the Alabama ex- 
periment station. I quote from a letter from him: 

In reply to your request, I give you the following data on 
Melilotus alba (sweet clover), as it is grown in the central 
prairie belt of Alabama and Mississippi. 

The seed should be sown in February and lightly covered. It 
may be sown either on ground devoted entirely to this crop or 
sown with seed oats or among growing plants of fall-sown oats. 
At least one bushel of unhulled seed per acre is needed. If sown 
alone and on good land there will usually be one or two cuttings 
the first year. If sown with oats as a nurse crop and on poor 
land, the first year's growth will scarcely be sufficient for cut- 
ting, but will afford a fair amount of pasturage. 

The second year new shoots spring from the old crowns early 
in March and the first cuttings of hay can be made early in May. 
There is usually a second cutting. Melilotus should be cut when 
just beginning to bloom, since after this date it rapdly becomes 
woody. The hay, especially that secured the year the seed are 
sown, is very nutritious, the composition resembling that of 
alfalfa, though melilotus hay contains a smaller proportion of 
leaves, and the stems are coarser, especially in the hay secured 
the second year of the plant's life. At first live stock do not 



168 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

relish either the hay or the green plant, but in time most ani- 
mals eat both with apparent relish, though always preferring 
grass and other legumes. 

Sweet clover seeds abundantly in its second year of growth 
and will thus occupy the land continuously if not destroyed by 
cultivation. It never makes a full stand except on lime land. 
Soil deficient in lime, but made up largely of clay, often pro- 
duces individual plants of thrifty growth, but I have never seen 
on such land a stand thick enough to be profitable. The chief 
value of melilotus is for the renovation of the stiff, waxy, lime 
soils of the central prairie regions of Alabama and Mississippi 
where the subsoil is a soft or rotten limestone. 

In Alabama yellow melilotus is not at all comparable in value 
with white melilotus. 

The yellow comes up earlier in winter, blooms in April, and 
is dead by June. It never attains the size of either top or root 
attained by sweet clover and hence is not equal as a renovating 
plant. Moreover, the bitter principle is much stronger in yellow 
melilotus, so strong indeed as to taint the milk and butter made 
from it, a condition that rarely if ever occurs with white meli- 
lotus. 

Note the curious fact that sweet clover like alfalfa 
revels in lime land. I have seen it growing with 
great luxuriance in piles of crushed limestone rail- 
way ballast where one would hardly think any plant 
could find sustenance, but that railway ballast was 
of limestone and full of limestone dust. 

Use of Siveet Clover. — Here would seem to be the 
correct use of melilotus, for making land ready for 
alfalfa. If it is land deficient in lime put on ground 
limestone enough to make it alkaline, or else use 
burned lime if the ground limestone can not be had. 
Then in case the land needs humus and fertility to 
be made ready for alfalfa, sow to melilotus for two 
years. There is no magic about melilotus probably 
aside from the magic of its bacteria, and it will 
grow the better for fertilization, so fertilize it with 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 169 

an application of about 250 pounds per acre of high 
grade acid phosphate or some better phosphate car- 
rier. Inoculate the seed when it is sown. That is 
easily done if one can get earth from some alfalfa 
field or some sweet clover patch. Not much earth 
is needed; 100 pounds of earth is ample for an acre. 
Dry the earth in the shade, spreading it out on the 
barn floor, and shoveling it over now and then, mak- 
ing it fine. Mix the earth with the melilotus seed 
and sow together. Melilotus seed is sometimes seen 
in the hull, though seedsmen usually sell the 
cleaned seed. It resembles alfalfa seed almost ex- 
actly, being sometimes a trifle larger. It weighs 
60 pounds to the bushel cleaned. To sow 15 pounds 
per acre of cleaned seed would doubtless give a 
stand. Mix this with the 100 pounds of inoculated 
soil and sow together, for thin land long run with- 
out manure, land too poor for alfalfa. If it is rich 
soil one would best sow alfalfa at once and be done 
with it, but if the soil needs building first, probably 
the sweet clover plant is as good a thing as oue can 
build with. It is especially adapted to worn soils 
(after liming or naturally filled with lime) in south- 
ern states. 

No Fear of Pest. — Some fear may be entertained 
lest the sweet clover becomes a pest in the land. 
There is no danger of that. Simply mowing the 
plant will destroy it as it is a biennial and must 
seed every second year. It often appears in alfalfa 
fields the first and second years after starting and 
sometimes the seedsmen are harshly criticised for 



170 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

selling adulterated alfalfa seed. Nearly all western 
seed will contain a little sweet clover seed and no 
seedsman probably can detect it or clean it out. It 
is not a serious injury to the alfalfa and disappears 
completely the third year when the alfalfa is mown 
off in regular rotation. There is never any difficulty 
in getting rid of melilotus when one gets ready to 
dispose of it. It is very much hardier than alfalfa 
and probably a better forager for plant food; cer- 
tainly it thrives on poorer soil than alfalfa does and 
it does very much to maJ^e the land ready for alfalfa 
wherever it grows. It does not ask for as deeply 
drained land as does alfalfa. On the other hand 
animals usually scorn to eat it, though I have seen 
it eaten with relish by sheep, pigs and cows in 
Alabama, and the animals throve. 

The seed usually sells a little cheaper than alfalfa. 
Should there develop much demand for it there 
would be large profit in producing seed on suitable 
soil, since it seeds very freely almost anywhere, 
while alfalfa does not. 

Melilotus in Kentucky. — As indicative of what 
melilotus is doing in Kentucky we quote the follow- 
ing extracts from letters written by J. T. Mardis, 
from Pendleton County: 

As an illustration of its value, I will explain that seventeen 
years ago I bought one hundred acres of as badly worn and 
washed land as could be found anywhere. My first resolve and 
constant efforts following was to improve and get in grass, and 
to obtain these results I worked all my spare time, year 
after year, filling washes with any material to be had, plowing, 
harrowing and sowing grass seeds and seeds of many different 
plants advertised and recommended for improving land, for which 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 171 

I spent hundreds of dollars, but as the land was too poor to take 
in grass to do any good, the labor and seed were lost, as the 
condition of the land grew worse with each season until seven 
years ago, when I took up sweet clover, with the result that to- 
day the land is in fine shape, either being cultivated and produc- 
ing good crops or in fine blue grass sod, and while producing this 
effect the land yielded an abundance of pasture and hay. And 
oh, what a relief to be rid of the sight of those unsightly barren 
and washed hillsides. 

It is a biennial, makes fine pasture the first season and 
abundant crop of pasture, hay or seed the second season. There 
are two varieties — white and yellow — the latter being generally 
preferred for hay, as it does not grow so coarse; it grows from 
two to four feet high, while the white will double this growth 
under same conditions, and makes splendid hay if properly man- 
aged; makes more and later pasture and builds land up much 
quicker. Each is good for all kinds of stock; does not bloat 
cattle or sheep; is one of the best honey plants known. It is a 
leguminous plant, the strongest within our knowledge. When 
once established it requires no further seeding as it reseeds 
itself. After it has once seeded, the land may be cultivated two 
or three years and a good stand follow without reseeding. 

Sown at any season of the year, you are sure to get enough 
to secure a catch by waiting and allowing it to seed and spread, 
but of course it is desirable to get a good stand at once, for which 
I advise sowing from Dec. 1 to March 1, on top of land without 
covering. Or if sown later, say to the first of May, it should be 
harrowed or brushed in. 

It can be sown with small grain of any kind either in spring 
or fall. If sown in early fall it should be covered sufficiently 
deep to prevent germination until spring. Good results are had 
by sowing on stony washed and barren hills during the winter 
months without previous preparation of the land, as the seed 
will be carried down by the frequent freeze and thaw. The seed 
should never be sown on snow or hard frozen ground, as it is 
liable to be carried off by following rains. Good blue grass 
sod can be had in three to four years on this class of land by 
sowing the two seeds together; all grasses do much better grown 
with sweet clover. 

To illustrate the rapidity with which sweet clover is gaining 
favor, I will state that in 1903 I saved one bushel of seed. In 
1904 I saved four bushels of seeds. I wrote articles which were 
published in the county paper, describing its habits and quali- 
ties. I continued to recommend it locally and in 1905 saved 



172 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

thirty bushels of seed which were readily taken, and later in the 
season the demand could not be supplied at any price. As a re- 
sult hundreds of acres of land in this and in one or two neigh- 
boring counties, so worn and washed that it was almost worth- 
less, has been and is being brought back to a state of productive- 
ness and value. 

In regard to seed, there seems to be no established market as 
to prices or number of pounds per bushel. It is sold at all kinds 
of prices per bushel, the bushels ranging from 14 to 60 pounds 
per bushel. 

There is also a vast difference in the quality of the seed, as 
to how it is cleaned and handled, as it heats very readily even in 
small bulk, consequently there is much dead seed sold, which fact 
has discouraged many would-be growers. 

I recommend the sowing of unhulled seed as a cheaper seed 
as something else is often substituted for the hulled. 

It should be cut when the first blooms appear and handled 
much the same as other clovers, giving a little more sunshine, 
according to weight of crop. For hay I advise sowing the yellow 
blossom variety on hand v/here the machine can be run. More 
feed of fine quality can be had per acre from this plant than any 
grass I have ever seen. For improving land and for grazing I 
strongly advise using the white variety. I do not recommend 
sweet clover for low or wet land. 

We have recently purchased 200 acres more of the same class 
of land and will soon have this in the same present condition of 
the first 100 acres purchased. During the spring of the ex- 
tremely dry season of 1908 we broke for corn an old timothy 
meadow where patches of sweet clover had been started, and all 
during the season, after the corn had started, it was easy to see 
where the sweet clover had grown, and these spots were the only 
part of the field where we had any corn which was fairly good, 
and the rest of the field yielded only fodder of poor quality. 

Mr. James Thompson, an all-round business man and director 
of the Pendleton Bank at Falmouth, has purchased a few hun- 
dred acres of worn out land which he has seeded to sweet clover 
and is well pleased with the investment and says he knows of no 
other plant so valuable to those having worn out or washed land. 

Mr. J. S. Gardner, Kelat, Ky.,. stock buyer and shipper, 
says: "The fattest sheep and cattle I handle are those from 
sweet clover pastures." 

Milch cows fed on sweet clover hay yield an abundance of 
milk from which is made nice yellow butter. Stock cattle, young 
horses and mules do well on the hay without grain. 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 173 

Land is just as easily broken after a heavy crop of sweet 
clover as after common red, if plowed before the seed plants 
have made too much growth. Seedling plants do not interfere 
with wheat. The yearling plant is a little in the way of harvest- 
ing, but does not injure the crop, unless it should be very thick. 
It will grow just as well on the poorest stony washed limestone 
land as on the best of soil. The land cannot be too dry and hot 
for it to succeed. It does prepare land for alfalfa by loosening, 
enriching and furnishing the necessary bacteria. It is a drouth 
resisting plant, and continues to grow through the dryest sum- 
mers, furnishing an abundance of grazing, while other grasses 
are parched, and remains green until quite hard freezing. Sweet 
clover is all right on good land, but it is the man with the worn 
land who needs it most. On dry land such' a thing as an entire 
failure is out of the question if good seed is sown, no matter at 
what season of the year, but of course you may expect best re- 
sults from spring seeding where the seed is covered by any means 
convenient, or from early winter sowing, when nature will do 
the covering. When sown for hay I use one bushel of seed to 
four acres, for grazing or improving land one bushel will be suf- 
ficient for five or six acres. If sown late in the season and the 
weather is dry the seed will lay over to the next spring and 
come all right. Some of the best stands I have ever had were 
obtained from such conditions. 

Some of the statements made may seem a little extravagant to 
those not familiar with the plant, yet there is not a particle of 
exaggeration. Just imagine a growth from six to eight feet high 
and so thick a man can scarcely walk through it, being left on 
the land to enrich it and stop wash and to be followed without 
cost the next season with a growth of seed plants that will form 
a dense sod and grow to the height of two to three feet, and this 
process repeated year after year, and add to this the fact that 
this plant unquestionably attracts to the soil more than double 
the amount of nitrogen that red clover will under the most favor- 
able conditions. Can you then wonder that land is so rapidly im- 
proved?" 

In Wyoming. — The Wyoming experiment station 
reports tliat lambs fed npon sweet clover hay relished 
it and throve. It was found that they digested it ex- 
ceedingly well, and that it contained a very large 
percentage of digestible protein. It is well known 



174 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



that animals usually refuse to eat green sweet clover. 
It seems that when made into hay, with a little salt 
added, they relish it. 
The Wyoming experiment is thus reported: 

Sweet clover throughout most of the eastern states is consid- 
ered as a weed and is treated as such. At this altitude, under 
our peculiar conditions, it is believed by a few that there is a fu- 
ture for it, since it grows well. It is an alkali-resisting plant 
and, although it is not palatable to stock in the green condition, 
yet after it is cured, especially where salt has been added, the 
stock relish it and thrive well upon it. It is very nutritious, 
readily digestible, and contains an exceedingly high percentage 
of crude protein. It is more nutritious when cut at the proper 
period than many of the other hays. 

The sweet clover hay used in this experiment was grown 
on the experiment station farm near Laramie in 1905. It had 
been in stack for over a year before being used for this experi- 
ment. It was very rank at the time of cutting and the amount 
of stems, therefore, very large in proportion to the leaves. The 
stems had become rather hard and woody. Notwithstanding 
this, the hay proved to be a very narrow ration, since the nutri- 
tive ratio was only 1:3.2. The crude fiber did not run as high as 
would have been expected, being but 24.75 per cent. The experi- 
ment was begun April 13th and completed April 26th, 1907. 

Amount fed 3,000 grams 

Amovint of orts 00 grams 

Amount of feces (air dry) 1,118 grams 

ANALYSIS. 





Water. 


Ash. 


Ether 
extract. 


Crude 
fiber. 


Crude 
protein. 


Nitrogen- 
free extract. 


Feed 


7.81 
6 27 


10.75 
9.41 


1.58 


24.75 
42.33 


15.74 
10.44 


39.37 




28.67 







AMOUNT IN GRAMS. 





Dry 
matter. 


Ash. 


Ether 
extract. 


Crude 
fiber. 


Crude 
protein. 


Nitrogen- 
free extract. 


Fed and consumed 

Feces 


2,765.7 
1,047.8 

1,717.9 
62.12 


322.5 
105.2 

217.3 
67.38 


47.4 
32.3 

15.1 

31.86 


742.5 
473.1 

269.4 
36.28 


472.2 
116.7 


1,181.1 
320.5 


Digested 

Per cent digested 


355.5 

75.28 


860.6 
72.86 



MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 



175 



DIGESTION COEFFICIENTS 


OP SWEET CLOVER HAY 






Dry 

matter. 


Ash. 


Ether 
extract. 


Crude 
fiber. 


Crude 
protein. 


Nitrog-en- 
f ree extract. 


Sheep 1 


58.44 
62.08 
62.12 


65.36 
64.62 
67.38 


32.91 
28.06 
31.86 


27.14 
37.48 
36.28 


75.33 

75.77 
75.28 


70.52 


Sheep 2 


72 74 


Sheep 3 


72.86 






Average 


60 88 


65 79 


30.94 


33.63 


75.46 


72 04 











TTie digestive coefficients of sweet clover hay are entirely sat- 
isfactory. It seems that the great objection to the hay is the 
flavor and the fact that it becomes woody if it is allowed to 
ripen. It is believed that there are possibilities for this plant in 
Wyoming if it is cut at the right time and properly cured and 
cared for. It grows well and the yields are large. The nutritive 
ratio is 1:32.2, as found by this experiment, which makes sweet 
clover a narrower ration than alfalfa. 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 

Phosphorus is the ^'life^' of the soil. Scientists 
are not agreed as to the function of phosphorus 
in the soil^ some contending that as applied it is 
merely a sort of disinfectant, as it were ; that it de- 
stroys certain toxic or poisonous conditions hurt- 
ful to plant life. Certain it is, however, that soils 
well stored with available phosphorus are produc- 
tive of the right soTts of useful plants. Soils well 
stored with phosphorus are rich soils, grow rich 
plants and make splendid animals. The soils of the 
central blue-grass region of Kentucky are so rich 
in phosphorus that the addition of more can not 
usually be seen in the crop. They are rich too in 
carbonate of lime and from these soils grow the 
best grasses in the world, and the horses and cat- 
tle feeding on these grasses are famed the world 
around. 

Soils that are poor and unproductive are usually 
much helped by applications of additional phos- 
phorus. Alfalfa especially responds to this element. 

Basic Slag. — Basic slag has already been men- 
tioned. It is a refuse left from making steel. Cer- 
tain ores rich in phosphorus make bad steel unless 
that element is taken out of them. John W. Pater- 
son of West Scotland Agricultural College, Glas- 
gow, in an admirable pamphlet on use of ^* Basic 
Slag on the Farm," says: 

The essential constituents of manures are nitrogen, potash 

(176) 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 177 

and phosphoric acid for the sake of the crop, lime for the sake 
of the land. 

At the outset of cultivation size of crop will generally be de- 
termined by the supply of the first three. After a term of years 
the ability of the soil to respond to fresh applications of artifi- 
cial manures will largely depend on its holding a sufficiency of 
lime. 

The use of most of the ordinary artificial manures involves 
the washing out of lime into the drains. Thus the application of 
1 cwt. sulphate of ammonia will, in ordinary circumstances, 
cause an ultimate loss of more than its own weight of available 
lime compounds in the drainage of waters. After a long period 
of artificial manuring the use of ground lime as a soil corrective 
has been rapidly gaining prominence in recent years. 

It is in view of this fact that among all artificial manures 
basic slag possesses a special interest. While primarily em- 
ployed as a phosphate, it contains ground lime as an accidental 
constituent. Bones do not cause waste of available lime com- 
pounds from the soil. Basic slag actually increases them. All 
other artificial manures in common use, nitrogenous, phosphatic 
and potassic, cause a gradual washing away of the lime com- 
pounds from the land. 

Manures are applied not because the land is ever actually 
deficient in nitrogen, potash or phosphoric acid at the time. They 
are applied rather because the natural supplies of these are in a 
form unsuitable for absorption by plants. 

The importance of lime in land is that it hastens the conver- 
sion of the natural soil constituents into available forms. This 
effect is exercised on the phosphates, on the potash, but above all 
on the nitrogen. The general effect of liming on newly broken in 
land, especially on peats, which are commonly deficient in lime, 
is sufficient evidence of this. 

Leguminous crops, including clovers, vetches and beans, do 
not require nitrogenous manures because they are able to utilize 
atmospheric nitrogen. Lime greatly strengthens their power to 
do this, thereby giving larger crops and enriching the land in 
nitrogen at the same time. Basic slag has the same power part- 
ly owing to the extra lime which it contains, the effect being 
usually best seen in the stimulation of clovers in pasture leys. 

Basic slag is a by-product in the manufacture of steel by the 
basic process. Pig iron freciuently contains phosphorus, and steel 
made from this is brittle unless the phosphorus is removed. In 
the process of manufacture a blast of air is forced through the 
molten pig iron, whereby the phosphorus in the pig is burned to 



178 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

give phosphoric acid. This acid then unites with lime thrown 
into the molten metal for the purpose. A phosphate of lime is 
formed. This rises to the surface of the metal as a fusible slag, 
and is subsequently poured off and cooled. A dark, brittle, hard 
mass is obtained, which is capable of extremely fine grinding in 
roller mills. 

In 1886, Dr. Hilgenstock showed that basic slag phosphate ex- 
ists as a hitherto unknown compound of phosphoric acid and 
lime, viz., a tetra-basic phosphate (CaO^PoOs. Later investiga- 
tions showed that this phosphate, if only sufficiently ground, 
passes easily into solution even in very dilute acids. In a sample 
shaken up with peat and water, 78.8 per cent of its phosphate 
was dissolved in 14 days. The suitability of basic slag phos- 
phate for direct absorption by plants v/as thereby demonstrated. 

The special characteristics of basic slag as a manure are (1) 
the easy solubility of its phosphate in dilute acid, (2) the pres- 
ence of free lime giving what is chemically called an alkaline re- 
action. In both these respects basic slag is superior to bones. 
Super-phosphate, the other principal source of phosphoric acid, is 
superior in solubility, being water soluble, but inferior in its 
general effect upon soils, being deficient in lime. These differ- 
ences in character of the three manures are seen in their relative 
effects as crop-producers in carefully conducted experiments. 

The capacity of leguminous crops to utilize atmospheric nitro- 
gen renders nitrogenous manures generally unnecessary. For 
the same reason farm yard manure, which supplies much nitro- 
gen, can in most cases be better utilized upon some other crop. 
The most profitable return will in ordinary practice be obtained 
from a dressing of artificials supplying phosphates, potash and 
lime. 

Beans, vetches and peas are all lime-loving crops, and for this 
reason basic slag is well suited to their requirements. Belonging 
to the same natural order are sainfoin, lucerne and clover, im- 
portant forage crops. For these, 5 cwt. basic slag, and 2y2 cwt. 
kainit in autumn, is recommended as a suitable application, with 
3 or 4 cwt. superphosphate, and the same quantity of kainit again 
in spring. The quantities stated may require to be increased or 
diminished according to the fertility of the land. 

While the necessity of applying manures to land under crop 
is now almost generally recognized, the claims of pasture 
strangely enough are almost wholly neglected. Recent investiga- 
tions have shown, however, that this is a mistake. More es- 
pecially is this the case with the medium and second-class 
pastures, whicn form such a large proportion of our grazing area, 



I 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 



179 



Practically speaking, all such pastures will yield a profitable 
return to a suitable application of manures, and in some cases 
the natural yield may be even trebled. 

Attention was first directed to the improvement of pasture 
land by Dr. Somerville, while director of the Northumberland 
County Farm at Cockle Park. His experiments were started in 
1897, and the results to date are published in a report by his suc- 
cessor, Prof. Gilchrist. The plots receiving different manurial 
treatment are each 3 1-20 acres — three acres being grazed each 
summer, while the odd fraction is cut for hay. The live-increases 
of the sheep and the yields of hay are carefully noted during 
each year, and compared with the unmanured plot. Ten differ- 
ent systems of manuring were contrasted in the experiments, but 
the following four only need be referred to, as they were most 
profitable of the various methods: 



PLOT. 


MANURES. 


Cost of 
manures. 


Mutton 
produced 
(6 years). 


Profit 

fi'om 

manures 


Hay 
per acre 
(6 years) 


6 


Unmanured . . 


22 s. 

22 s. 
36 s. 

56 s. 


246 lbs. 
822 lbs. 
662 lbs. 
642 lbs. 

769 lbs. 


158 s. 
108 s. 

88 s. 

107 8. 


59 cw^t. 


3 


10 cwt. slag, 1897 


164 cwt. 


4 


5 cwt. slag-,* 1897, same 1900 


133 cwt. 


5 


7 cwt. super,* 1897, same 1900 




8 


Same as plot 5; J^ ton ground lime, 
1897, same 1899 











♦Containing 100 lbs. phosphoric acid. 

The profit is estimated from the extra mutton produced over 
and above that on the unmanured plot. It is valued for the 
purpose at 3%d. per pound, live weight. 

Basic slag here has proved at once the cheapest and most 
profitable form of fertilizer on pasture. Its superiority to super- 
phosphate (Plots 4 and 5) seem to be due to the fact that besides 
containing easily available phosphate it also contains free lime. 
Comparison of plots 5 and 8 bears this inference. The land at 
Cockle Park is stiff clay, and has been under pasture for over 
thirty years. 

Basic slag is purchased on its percentage of phosphate of 
lime. The quality varies from about 20 to 45 per cent phosphate 
(equal to 9 to 21 per cent phosphoric acid). The higher grades 
are usually rather cheaper per unit. The unit prices of different 
samples may be ascertained by dividing the prices per ton by the 
percentages. Other things being equal, the quality which sup- 
plies the unit of phosphate at the lowest cost on the farm should 
be purchased. 

I devote tliis amount of space to basic slag be- 



180 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

cause I have seen such good effects come from its 
use in England, and because it did equally well on 
Woodland Farm. It will never perhaps be cheap 
enough for use west of the Allegheny Mountains, 
since it is all imported from England or Germany, 
but along the Atlantic seaboard it is now probably 
as cheap a s'ource of phosphoric acid as anything 
known. With basic slag one gets quite a little lime 
free of cost, since usually there is about 55% of 
carbonate of lime in basic slag. It should sell for 
about $1 per unit; that is, a slag analyzing 1S% 
phosphoric acid should sell for $18 per ton, when it is 
about as cheap as any other source of phosphorus 
with the lime thrown in. 

In England on old pastures basic slag works 
miracles. There with the sowing of no seeds at all 
clovers spring up and cover over the land, almost 
crowding out the grasses. The lime has sweetened 
the soil, the phosphorus fed it, the clovers result. 
Later the decay of clover leaves and stems fill the 
soil with available nitrogen which in turn feeds the 
grass. When will we learn in America to feed soils! 

Other Sources of Phosphorus. — Prof. Alfred 
Vivian, of the Ohio State University, so clearly and 
concisely states the composition of phosphatic fer- 
tilizers in his admirable little book, ''First Prin- 
ciples of Soil Fertility,'' that we here quate: 

Phosphoric acid is present in the soil in much smaller quan- 
tities than potash, and experience shows that it is much more 
likely to become exhausted. In fact, there are sections of the 
country where no other fertilizers than those furnishing phos- 
phoric acid are used, while these are bought in large quantities. 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 181 

All this class of fertilizers contains its phosphoric acid in the 
form of phosphates, i. e., the phosphoric acid is combined with 
sortie basic substance, which is generally lime. The phosphates 
may be subdivided into two general classes — the natural and the 
manufactured phosphates. 

Natural Phosphates. — There are two general sources of phos- 
phates — the bones of dead animals, and certain phosphate-contain- 
ing minerals, which will be briefly considered. 

Raw bone meal is made by grinding raw bones to a powder, 
and the finer it is the more valuable the product. This substance 
contains about 22 per cent of phosphoric acid and 4 per cent of 
nitrogen. Raw bones contain a small quantity of fat as well and, 
as this prevents rapid decay of the bone, the phosphoric acid and 
nitrogen in the meal are somewhat slowly available to the crop. 

Steamed Bone meal. — ^Most of the bone meal sold at the pres- 
ent time is made from bones previously steamed to remove the 
fat and a part of the nitrogen compounds. The fat is used in 
making soap and the nitrogen in glue and gelatins. Steamed 
bone contains from 28 to 30 per cent of phosphoric acid and 
about lYz per cent of nitrogen. The steam^ed bones can be ground 
to a much finer powder, and the removal of the fat causes them 
to decay more rapidly, so that they must be considered a more 
valuable source of phosphoric acid than the raw bones. 

Mineral Phosphates. — In a number of places rock deposits are 
found that contain varying percentages of phosphate of lime. 
These phosphates are usually named after the place where they 
are obtained, as, Carolina phosphates, Florida phosphates and 
Tennessee phosphates. These rocks contain from 18 to 32 per 
cent of phosphoric acid, and differ from the bone products in 
that they are purely mineral substances and contain no organic 
matter. Ground into a fino powder, they are sometimes sold un- 
der the name of floats, but the rock phosphates are used only to 
a limited extent in the crude condition. 

Superphosphates or Manufactured Phosphates. — The phos- 
phoric acid in all of the natural phosphates described is combined 
with lime in a form that is extremely insoluble in water. In or- 
der to make the phosphate soluble it is sometimes treated with 
sulphuric acid, which unites with part of the lime, leaving a 
phosphate which contains only one-third as much lime as the 
natural phosphate, and which is soluble in water. The lime and 
sulphuric acid make a compound which is the same as that found 
in gypsum or land-plaster. This combination of soluble phos- 
phate and gypsum, made by treating the natural phosphates with 
acid, is called by the various names of super-phosphate, soluble 



182 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

phosphate, acid phosphate or acidulated rock. For its manufac- 
ture the rock phosphates are generally employed, both because 
they are cheaper and because the organic matter in the bones 
interferes with the use of sufficient acid to make all the phos- 
phate soluble. A good sample of super-phosphate or acidulated 
rock contains about 16 per cent of phosphoric acid in a form that 
is soluble in water. Sometimes when insufficient acid has been 
used a part of the soluble phosphate will change into a form in- 
termediate in solubility between the natural phosphate and the 
acid phosphate, and the acid phosphate is said to have undergone 
reversion, and the new compound is called reverted phosphate. 
The latter product is supposed to be more available to the plant 
than the insoluble or natural phosphate, hence the soluble and 
reverted phosphoric acid taken together are known as the avail- 
able phosphoric acid. 

In some instances bone meal is treated with a limited amount 
of sulphuric acid and the product is called acidulated bone. 
This substance contains a much smaller proportion of its phos- 
phoric acid in the soluble form than does the rock superphos- 
phate. When soluble phosphates are added to the soil they soon 
combine with the mineral matter, and are converted first into 
the reverted phosphate, and finally into the insoluble form such 
as is found naturally in the soil. In this way the phosphoric 
acid is fixed and there is no danger of its being lost by leaching. 

Relative Value of PJwsphate Fertilizers.— The soluble phos- 
phate present in the acidulated goods is generally considered the 
most valuable form of phosphoric acid for use as a fertilizer. At 
first sight it seems useless to go to the expense of making the 
phosphate soluble when it is again rendered insoluble by the 
soil before the plant can make use of it. The real object in mak- 
ing it soluble is to aid in its distribution in the soil. When an 
insoluble phosphate is applied it remains where it falls except 
for the slight distribution it receives by cultivation. In the case 
of the soluble phosphate, on the other hana, the phosphate dis- 
solves in the soil water and is widely distributed before it be- 
comes fixed by the soil. In the former case the roots must go 
to the phosphate while in the latter the phosphate is carried to 
the roots. It follows from what has been said that after the 
soluble phosphate is distributed throughout the soil the indi- 
vidual particles must be very much smaller than is the case with 
the insoluble phosphate. 

There are some soils upon which the superphosphates cannot 
be used without injury, usually those that are deficient in lime, 
the superphosphate in. such cases having a tendency to make 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 183 

them acid. Indeed it is even asserted that soils containing an 
abundance of lime in the beginning may be made acid by the 
continued use of superphosphate if no lime is added. 

When the natural phosphates alone are considered there is no 
doubt that the preference should be given to those derived from 
bones. The organic matter present in the bones decays when it is 
incorporated with the soil, and this process doubtless causes the 
phosphate to become more readily available to the plant, while 
the rock phosphate on the contrary is very slowly decomposed. 
The degree of fineness to which bone meal or mineral phosphate 
is ground is of prime importance. Very fine bone meal is much 
more available than that which is coarser and is always rated at 
a higher price a ton. 

Using Floats with Manure. — The use of floats, or finely ground 
phosphate rock, has not met with general favor, and it probably 
does not give good results when used alone. Some of the earlier 
experiments indicate that it has practically no value as a source 
of phosphoric acid for the plant. Recent investigations at the 
Ohio and Illinois Experiment Stations show that when floats are 
added to farm manure it has a very high fertilizing value; in 
fact the increased crop production in Ohio due to adding the 
ground rock phosphate to the stall manure was nearly as large 
as that obtained from the addition of superphosphate. The acid 
substances produced during the decay of the manure apparently 
make the phosphoric acid in the rock more available, and it 
would seem from these experiments that the comparatively in- 
expensive floats might, partially at least, replace superphosphate 
if used in connection with the manure. Other experiments have 
demonstrated that good results can be obtained from the use of 
ground rock phosphate when plowed under with a green manure 
crop like clover, but that it is of very little value if used on a 
soil low in organic matter. In a plot experiment at the Mass- 
achusetts experiment station two "equal money's worth" of 
ground Carolina rock and superphosphates were compared. In 
this case the superphosphate proved superior at first, but v/ithin 
a few years the plot to which rock phosphate was added gave 
higher yields. It would seem, on the whole, that the use of 
floats with manure is worthy of a trial by anyone needing a 
phosphate fertilizer. Ohio Bulletin 134 recommends that the 
ground rock be used "as an absorbent in the stable, thus secur- 
ing an intimate mixture with the manure in its fresh condition." 

Raw Phosphatic Roch for Alfalfa. — Eaw rock, 
or floats, the natural Tennessee, South Carolina 



184 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

or Florida phospliatic rock, is tlie basis of tlie fer- 
tilizer called acid phosphate, or acidulated bone. It 
is made into acidulated form by the addition of 
about as much sulphuric acid as is taken of finely 
ground rock. 

The raw rock contains a large amount of phos- 
phorus, but it is not in an available condition to 
be taken up by plants; at least this is the general 
supposition. Experiment, however, shows that when 
the finely ground phosphatic rock is put in contact 
with decaying organic matter in the soil it does be- 
come available and plants feed upon it. A given 
amount of money will purchase about two or three 
times as much phosphorus in the form of raw rock 
as it will purchase in the acidulated form. 

J. F. Jack on his farm in eastern Virginia has 
given the raw rock a careful test and with very 
marked results. The rock was applied at varying 
rates, from 250 pounds per acre to 1,000 pounds per 
acre. Check strips where no fertilizer was applied 
were left. The result showed conclusively that the 
raw phosphate was available and where 1,000 
pounds per acre was applied the result was a splen- 
did growth of alfalfa. Even the application of 400 
pounds gave good results, though it is not probable 
that it would be nearly so permanent. Fully as good 
results were obtained with the raw rock on this par- 
ticular soil where a heavy growth of crimson clover 
had been turned down and about 1,000 pounds per 
acre of water-slaked lime was used, as was had from 
raw bone, 400 pounds, or acid phosphate, 400 pounds. 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 185 

It is not yet safe to say that upoii all soils tlie 
result would be the same, but on this particular soil, 
somewhat acid, with a heavy growth of green clover 
turned under, there is no mistaking the great saving 
resulting from the use of the raw rock. 

Upon this same soil potash seemed to give no 
noticeable result, nor could be found a strip where 
was applied nitrate of soda at the rate of 100 
pounds per acre. It was indistinguishable, showing 
that the decaying crimson clover furnished all the 
available nitrogen needed for the growth of the 
little alfalfa plants. 

There was left one plot with no inoculation. The 
result was most astonishing. Where the land was 
inoculated with soil evenly spread the alfalfa stood 
thick and strong, knee high and more. Where no 
inoculation had been applied it was thin, weak, 
crowded with weeds, many plants less than 2'' high. 

Phosphates on Alfalfa. — Even on good land I have 
found it very profitable to sow some sort of phos- 
phate with new sown alfalfa. The phosphorus cer- 
tainly greatly stimulates the little alfalfa plants and 
makes them hustle to get ahead of the weeds and 
grass. Thus stronger stands result. Also less seed 
may be sown to the acre than if no phosphorus is 
used. The writer and his brother have used on 
Woodland Farm raw bone meal, acid phosphate and 
basic slag with about equal reults so far as the eye 
could see. It is our practice to put on 250 to 400 
pounds per acre of 16% acid phosphate when the 
alfalfa is sown in soils well filled with lime. Acid 



186 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

pliospliate is about the most soluble of tlie plios- 
p'liatic fertilizers and thus is best for top dressing 
when there is abundant lime in the soil. When there 
is suspicion that there may not be lime enough then 
basic slag or bone meal should be used, unless lime 
also is applied. Acid phosphate dissolves away a 
part of the lime in the soil. That is its one bad 
feature. 

As has been stated the alfalfa meadows on "Wood- 
land Farm get an annual dressing of phosphorus 
young and old alike, and this practice pays well. 

Fertiliser Distributer. — On Woodland Farm we 
own a wide and large fertilizer distributer. This 
machine sows a strip 8' wide and the box holds 1,000 
pounds of fertilizer. It simply sows the stuff broad- 
cast on the surface. There are various types of 
these machines. The American Seeding Machine 
Co., Springfield, Ohio, makes one, and another is 
made by the Peoria Drill and Seeder Co., Peoria, 
111. With such a machine a man can go rapidly 
over his old meadow, or sow his phosphorus over 
his land preparatory to seeding his alfalfa. Time 
is the thing hardest to command on most farms in 
the spring; many would fertilize their meadows if 
they were not otherwise too busy. With these large 
wide sowing machines a man can rapidly get over 
his fields. No one should 'hesitate to buy the fer- 
tilizer, since a dollar so invested will usually re- 
turn three or four in the crop of hay. 

Adding to Fertility. — There is here a striking 
thought. Since our farms east of the Missouri 



PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 187 

Eiver are nearly all of tliem deficient in phosphorus, 
if we buy it and use it on alfalfa meadows, then 
feed the alfalfa hay and put back the manure, we 
are steadily adding to our capital of fertility; not 
much is lost, only we sell away in the bones of our 
cattle, pigs and sheep a part of it and in their flesh 
and blood a little more. An alfalfa farm may thus 
become a great laboratory of fertility gathering, 
provided the crops are fed on the farm. When they 
are sold off the story is different. 

Hoiv Much PhospJioriisf — In England it is the 
custom to apply very large amounts of basic slag to 
their meadows and pastures far in excess of what 
the plants can take up, and they seem to get large 
profit from so doing. There is lack of careful ex- 
periment to show us what amounts of phosphorus 
will pay best sown with or on alfalfa. The require- 
ments of the plant, that is, the amounts actually 
taken away from the soil, are as follows : 1,000 lbs. 
of alfalfa hay contains 5 lbs. of phosphoric acid; 4 
tons, or 8,000 lbs., would then contain 40 lbs. of 
phosphoric acid. Two hundred and fifty pounds of 
16% acid phosphate would contain that amount, 
and should make good what was removed from the 
soil by the 4 tons of hay. That there should be abund- 
ance in supply the writer advises the use of 300 
lbs. annually of 16% acid phosphate, or propor- 
tional amounts of the stuff, if a different percent- 
age is bought. Thus if only 10% of available phos- 
phoric acid is present one would need to use 400 
lbs. or more. So it is cheaper and better to use only 



188 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the high grade fertilizers containing large percent- 
ages of available phosphoric acid. 

How Well Will This Pay? — In most of the east- 
ern United States a 16% acid phosphate can be 
bought for $14 to $16 per ton. Thus 250 lbs. would 
cost about $2, and the labor of applying it about 
30c. Thus to fertilize an acre costs less than $2.50. 
The yield of hay will be increased in proportion to 
the need of phosphorus, but on Woodland Farm it 
has been as much as 2 tons of hay per acre increase, 
and thus this additional hay cost us only $1.25 per 
ton. Could we have afforded to have left this land 
unfertilized! 

The plain fact is that farming is, after all, a 
manufacturing proposition. The land is the fac- 
tory. Its fertility is the raw material. A man 
would be thought inconceivably foolish who would 
through stinginess refuse to keep his factory sup- 
plied with raw materials, thus letting his machinery 
work to only half of its capacity. The alfalfa 
meadow, the corn field, these plants are our ma- 
chines. Feed them with their required raw ma- 
terial. 



POTASH AS A FERTILIZER. 

Most soils derived from granitic rocks have in 
them a lot of potash. Most soils in the glaciated 
area of eastern and central America seems to be 
quite well supplied with potash. Some sandy soils 
are deficient, and peaty lands, where once old pond 
bottoms were, are especially deficient. To grow al- 
falfa on peat or to grow corn there one mnst use 
potash. 

Testing ivith Potash. — As a rule on ordinary up- 
land clays and clay loams potash seems not to be 
lacking. Very often where it is applied to such 
soils no result can be seen. It is wise for each farm- 
er to make test of this matter for himself. Let him 
procure a few hundred pounds of muriate of potash 
and apply it in strips over his fields, marking the 
ends of the strips so that he can see the result, if 
there is any. About 200 lbs. per acre of muriate of 
potash is a moderately heavy application. 

Wood Ashes. — ^Wood ashes may contain 8% of 
potash and 2% of phosphoris acid. There is also 
some lime in them and other minerals in small 
amounts. Wood ashes have an especially good ac- 
tion on alfalfa. It is an interesting truth that no one 
has yet been able to compound a fertilizer that would 
have the same effect as wood ashes, though the ingre- 
dients were so mingled that chemically the two mate- 
rials were nearly identical. Nature has done some- 

(189) 



190 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

thing with wood ashes that man can not imitate very 
well. The writer has secured splendid results from 
use of wood ashes on soils that did not seem to need 
potash. I advise that all wood ashes be saved with 
care and whenever there is a saw mill or any other 
wood-burning furnace nearby the ashes should be 
secured and applied to alfalfa land. Wood ashes 
are applied in varying amounts, from 500 lbs. to one 
ton per acre. 



PLOWING THE SOIL. 

Plowing is an ancient art. The height of a land's 
civilization is very nearly to be measured by the 
sort of plowing done there. What is plowing for! 
It turns under loose stubble, trash and vegetation, 
putting it down into the soil where it may decay and 
by its decay help set free mineral plant food. It 
loosens the earth to let air in and this promotes im- 
portant changes in the soil. It lets the water sink 
down into the soil, hence plowed lands are moister 
and will withstand drouth much longer than un- 
plowed lands. 

There are certain crops that seems to thrive on 
shallow plowed soils. Alfalfa, on the other hand, 
seems to thrive best where the land is plowed deep. 
In older lands than ours, where agriculture has 
advanced very far towards a perfect system, deep 
plowing is much practiced. In France some plow 
a foot deep and even deeper. On the Island of 
Guernsey men often plow a field twice, the first 
plowing shallow, the second one crossways and go- 
ing down as far as 16'^ On such lands alfalfa 
thrives especially well. In France and Algeria men 
plow for alfalfa full 2C deep. 

Why Deep Ploiving Suits Alfalfa. — The reason 
why alfalfa likes the land plowed deep is doubtless 
because the letting in of air and moisture favors 
the life of alfalfa-promoting bacteria. These 

(191) 



192 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

thrive especially well in soils where the air can 
penetrate easily. The bacteria supply alfalfa with 
nitrogen. Thns deep plowing is equivalent to feed- 
ing the alfalfa with extra nitrogen. The heaviest 
growth of alfalfa that I have ever seen was on the 
ranch in Utah where I once lived, the plants stand- 
ing 48'^ high ail over the field and very thicli. The 
underlying soil there was of loam, interspersed with 
layers of loose sand and gravel, a soil that was too 
easily drained, not very fertile, but well filled with 
lime and other alkalies. With copious irrigation 
that land produced enormous crops of hay. 

Deep plowing in a manner imitates such a condi- 
tion by letting in the air and storing up more mois- 
ture as well. Of course one must use judgment. If 
his soil is of poor clay with only a thin skin of 
vegetable mould on top one dares not bury that 
deep under the clay and plant maize thereon, but 
it is probable that he could do it and plant alfalfa 
with success, especially if the land was well drained 
and limed. 

The water-holding power of deeply plowed soil 
is about double that of unplowed, or shallow plowed 
soil. This is important when it comes to getting 
maximum crops of alfalfa hay. The lack of mois- 
ture is usually the limiting factor in crop yield, a 
fact not half appreciated as yet. 

How to Plow Deep. — I have done some experi- 
menting on a hard clay soil with numerous small 
round boulders or ^'niggerheads'^ in it in trying to 
plow deep. It is not an easy task. In this especial 



PLOWING THE SOIL. 193 

soil on Woodland Farm the top soil is rather poor 
in lime, leached away by the erosion of centuries 
of rain. Down about W are many limestone peb- 
bles. Could these be thrown up by the plow the 
result would be the same as a heavy liming — be 
better, in truth. How do we know this! By the be- 
havior of land that has been tile drained. Where 
the ditches are dug the subsoil is mixed with the 
top soil — in fact in filling the subsoil is usually left 
on top — and there will grow the best alfalfa with- 
out question. Even in a dry year the effect is very 
marked, the narrow strip of land where the tile ditch 
stood sending up alfalfa like a ridge, often 12 or 
more inches taller than the rest of the field. The 
effect is more marked on a dry year than on a wet 
one, so it can not be attributed to the effect of 
underdrainage altogether. 

We have found that with a large common break- 
ing plow we could go down 10'' easily enough, if 
the land was not too moist nor too dry. After that 
a smaller plow can follow and go 4'' or 5'' deeper. 
Not much of this last soil will be thrown clear of 
the furrow, but it will become well mixed through 
with the top soil. Woodland Farm has only be- 
gun experimentation along this line, but we are 
quite well persuaded that by the time the reader 
sees these lines we will have abundant proof of the 
great use of this deep plowing. We are ready to 
advise only in fairly fertile soils, especially if the 
subsoil has more lime than the surface, a depth of 
plowing of 12'' or 16" or as deep as you can go. 



194 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Plowing, like the tariff, is ''a local matter," so 
each farmer had better test the thing for himself. 
On his own soil deep plowing may not work so well. 
It is easily tested on a small scale in any event. 

Suhsoiling. — A subsoil plow is one that merely 
runs in the furrow and loosens up the underlying 
soil. It does not bring any of it up to the surface. 
Subsoiled land has much greater water-holding ca- 
pacity than before it was subsoiled. Sometimes this 
fact is a detriment, if the land is poorly drained. 
It is difficult to subsoil land that has in it boulders 
or large stones. Subsoiled land erodes less than 
other land, because the water sinks readily into the 
subsoil and there is thus a great reservoir of satu- 
rated earth which in turn gives moisture to the over- 
lying soil. In all hilly regions where there is dan- 
ger of erosion, as in east Tennessee, subsoiling has 
been found to be a more useful practice. 

Not so much work has been done in subsoiling 
for alfalfa as should be done. I have only done 
such subsoiling as I described in the ditching work 
done on Woodland Farm. That has convinced 
me, however, that some day much land will in some 
way be loosened up here and tlie yield of alfalfa 
be increased at least 25%, and probably more. 

On the Rappahannock Eiver, in Virginia, J. F. 
Jack has tested subsoiling in a limited way and the 
result has been very markedly good. In truth sub- 
soiling tested alongside of additional fertilization 
gave markedly superior results. Other men have 
related to me their experiences with subsoiling, but 



PLOWING THE SOIL. 195 

SO far as I am aware nothing has been done in ex- 
periment station work along this line. On all hard 
clays and wherever it is desirable that more water 
be stored in the subsoil I advise the use of the sub- 
soil plow. It would certainly be wise to test it in a 
small way at first, then if results seemed good it 
could be adopted as a part of the regular practice. 

In Europe it is not unknown to trench or dig 
up a field with spades to a depth of 36'', mixing top 
and bottom soils, and land thus treated, well limed, 
well manured, yields crops that would astonish an 
American farmer, even if living on the richest soils. 

Plowing for Spring Solving. — When alfalfa is to 
be sown in the spring it is well to get the plowing 
done early, this so that the land will settle together 
again and make a better seedbed for the seedling 
plants. Freshly plowed land is too loose to hold 
moisture near the surface well. Thus it is best 
to plow for alfalfa in the fall or during the winter. 
If lime is to be applied it is best to apply it imme- 
diately after the plowing, or after one dragging of 
the land. Then it is disked in and mixed well with 
the soil. 

If the plowing can not be done early it may be 
done immediately before seeding, but then more 
care must be taken to firm the soil again and make 
a good seedbed. Going over it several times with 
the disk harrow is one way to firm it, or to roll it 
with a heavy roller and afterward disking it will 
bring the top soil into capillary connection with the 
subsoil. 



196 ALFAI.FA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

It is not SO necessary to get a perfect seedbed in 
spring sowing as it is when sowing in the fall. There 
is much more moisture in the spring and heavy 
rains will probably come to compact the seedbed, 
yet drouths are to be looked for at any time, so 
one should do his part well in any case. 

Example of Spring Sowing. — Take Woodland 
Farm, where always of recent years seeding has 
been done early in April. This farm is about on the 
40th parallel, in the latitude of Columbus, 0., Phila- 
delphia and Springfield, 111. Spring seeding is done 
here because of the climate and soil. Singularly 
enough at this point on the curve of the earth there 
seems more fighting of the elements than either 
north or south of us. At Wooster, 0., some 80 
miles north of us, snow and frozen ground prevail 
during a much longer time in winter than with us. 
Thus at Wooster they find fall seeding of alfalfa a 
better thing than spring seeding, while we have had 
very poor success indeed with fall seeding, which 
usually lifts out of the ground during the repeated 
freezes and thaws of winter. 

Disk, Harrotv and Drag.— hand destined for al- 
falfa is almost always planted to corn the year be- 
fore and given very clean and careful cultivation. 
For the corn crop as much manure as was available 
was applied. The land is plowed in the fall or win- 
ter if there is time and the soil is found fit. The 
plows are set to run as deep as practicable. In this 
practice we are reforming steadily year by year, 
deepening our soil as fast as we well cam As soon 



PLOWING THE SOIL. 197 

as danger of hard freezing is over, say by April 10, 
when the land is dry enough to be fit to till, we go 
afield with disk harrows. The cutaway double disk 
harrows suit us very well for this purpose. Fol- 
lowing the disk harrow goes the slant-tooth smooth- 
ing harrow, which levels the land quite well. 
After the smoothing harrow goes the plank drag. 
This makes a smooth surface, free from clods. The 
drag is made of three planks, about 2x12, lapped 
together like shingles and bolted together. The 
drag makes drilling easier and a better seed-bed. 

Sometimes the fertilizer is sown before the land is 
dragged, sometimes afterward. This point is not 
very material. As already described, we commonly 
sow acid phosphate of about 16 per cent grade, be- 
cause it is cheaper with us than bone meal or any 
other carrier of phosphorus. We sow no potash 
except on black peaty soils, once beds of swamps. 
Lime we have applied earlier; it is best to have it 
incorporated with the soil some weeks or even 
months before sowing the seed when this is pos- 
sible. 

Seeding with Brill. — After the drag comes the 
drill. We use a drill with grass seed attachment 
that sows both barley and alfalfa seed. The alfalfa 
seed is sometimes set to fall in front of the drill 
and sometimes to fall behind, depending somewhat 
on the nature of the soil. On stiff clay land it will 
not do to bury alfalfa seed very deep. On lighter 
looser soils they will come up through an inch of 
soil. 



198 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The drill is set to sow two bushels of beardless 
spring barley to the acre. This barley does not stool 
heavily. It is not a very prolific barley either, but it 
makes a good nurse crop for alfalfa. The facts that 
it does not often lodge and does not much shade the 
young alfalfa are all in its favor. 



SEEDING AND GUTTING. 

About 15 pounds of alfalfa seed are sown. We 
have used more and have used as little as 8 pounds. 
In the long run there seems little difference in the 
yield of hay, but on the whole we prefer to use 15 
pounds of seed. 

Work After Seeding. — If the land is very dry, 
we follow the drill with a roller. We seldom do 
this, however, since there is always danger that rain 
may follow and further compact the land, making 
it hard for seeds to get up. We very much prefer 
to get the under part of the seedbed firm before 
putting on the seed. We sometimes follow the drill 
with the plank drag again. We aim always to leave 
the land quite level and smooth, so that the mower 
will run nicely. 

Inoculation. — With us no inoculation is needed, 
nor was it ever needed seriously on Woodland 
Farm. Just why this was true we can not imagine 
except that our father had allowed some few clumps 
of melilotus to grow and that he had always used a 
good deal of manure. For some unexplained rea- 
son manured land is nearly always inoculated with 
alfalfa bacteria, illogical as the statement seems. 
Inoculation comes in about a month, little nodules 
by that time appearing on nearly every rootlet. 

Further Treatment. — It is seen how easily we 

(199) 



,200 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

SOW alfalfa, with what slight labor and expense, yet 
magnificent stands are secured in every instance 
We have not one record of failure where this system 
has been followed on Woodland Farm except in 
a few spots where the barley lodged badly and was 
not soon enough removed. 

The further treatment of the field is to let it alone 
till the barley comes into bloom. Then we go in 
with mowers and cut it all down and make it into 
hay. By that time the alfalfa will be needing a 
clipping. Sometimes we wait till the grain is be- 
ginning to form in the heads, but usually we take 
off the barley hay earlier than that. 

Time to Cut. — The test of when young alfalfa is 
ready to clip is when the plants put out little buds 
or shoots down near the ground, at the bases of the 
stems. It ought never to be clipped before then. 
After that time it ought to be clipped promptly, as 
one must not cut off these new shoots with the 
mower. We have said this before and will repeat it 
again as the point is so essential to success. 

Why Make Barley Eayf — Why do we not let the 
barley ripen its grain! Because if we were to do 
that it. would seriously weaken the young alfalfa. 
Eipening grain takes a tremendous amount of 
moisture from the ground. It also not infrequently 
lodges and this smothers out the young alfalfa 
Very little shading or mulching will kill it. So it 
is better to make hay of the barley. It makes good 
hay; all animals love it. It is more profitable made 
into hay than used in any other form. 




BARLEY AS A NURSE CROP FOR ALFALFA. 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 201 

Subsequent Cuttings. — Wlien tlie barley is taken 
away the alfalfa comes vigorously on and makes 
another cutting in about 40 or 50 days. The time 
to cut this is judged by the buds or shoots upon 
the stems, just as at the first. This is in fact the 
inviolable rule in cutting alfalfa if you wo-uld pre- 
serve its vigor and productiveness. 

After this cutting it is left strictly alone. No one 
trespasses again on the alfalfa, no animals graze 
it, no mower invades its domain. It may be 24 
inches high when killing frosts come; no matter; 
leave it stand and next year you will gain all that 
and much more with it. 

Value of Barley Nurse Crops. — Why the nurse 
crop with spring sowings'? First, because there is 
pretty good profit in beardless barley hay. We 
feed it to all our animals. The alfalfa has grown 
about as well for the presence of the barley as it 
would have grown alone. And the barley rather 
subdues other annual grasses. There is a curious 
principle in Nature that some plants are delete- 
rious to other plants. Cockle burrs, for instance, 
poison land for corn, and where barley grows well 
foxtail grass is not so much seen. Then when the 
barley is taken away the alfalfa seems to push right 
on, almost unmolested. We can get a much better 
stand of alfalfa with a nurse crop of beardless 
spring barley than we can to sow it alone, and we 
get the barley hay as a clear gift. 

Other Nurse Crops. — Wliy not choose oats as a 
nurse crop! With us they are not nearly as de- 



202 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sirable. When oats are left to ripen tlieir grain 
a poor stand of alfalfa is almost inevitable. 

I have often sown oats with alfalfa, mowing 
them for hay when in bloom with good results c 
When oats are sown no more than a bushel of seed 
should be sown to the acre. If the soil is very rich 
and the seedbed very good three pecks per acre 
will be enough seed, or even a less amount. Oats 
stool much more vigorously than barley and thus 
thicken up and shade the alfalfa plants too much. 

Oats must be mown off earlier even than barley 
to leave good stand of alfalfa. When the little sta- 
mens begin to hang out from the oat heads then cut 
for hay at once. Or if the oats should lodge mow 
immediately and remove from the ground. Oats 
make more hay than barley, but it is harder to cure. 

Flax has sometimes been used as a nurse crop 
for alfalfa with pretty good success. 

Alfalfa is sown in wheat successfully in some 
places. It is absolutely necessary that the land be 
previously inoculated, or that the inoculating earth 
be put and harrowed in before the alfalfa is sown, 
or failure will surely result. It is necessary to 
harrow the wheat and make a fair seedbed so that 
the alfalfa seed may be covered. On the whole, 
wheat is not a good nurse crop for alfalfa, since 
if the soil is rich it is apt to lodge and smother out 
the baby plants. 

Oowpeas, soy beans, rape, Canada field peas, all 
these things have repeatedly been tried with no 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 203 

success whatever. They shade too much and 
smother out the alfalfa. 

Fall rye sown in the spring is advocated by a New 
Jersey man who used it thus nearly 100 years ago. 
I have not tested it, but have my suspicions. 

Alfalfa may be sown with corn at the time of last 
cultivation in July. Thus sown it makes almost a 
stand, never quite a perfect stand. The corn robs 
the land a little too much of moisture to allow the 
alfalfa to get rightly rooted. There is also a little 
too much shade. Should alfalfa seed ever become 
cheap again it would pay to sow it in corn for soil 
improvement, even if it was turned over next year 
in late May and again planted to corn. 

Where Are Nurse Crops Permissible? — In Ohio, 
Illinois, Indiana and probably Iowa and Missouri 
a nurse crop may be often as good a thing as it is 
on Woodland Farm. Much depends upon whether 
it is intelligently used. To sow grain thickly and 
to let it ripen on the land may very likely prove 
most injurious to the alfalfa. If a man knows his 
failings, if he is too greedy to cut the nurse crop 
at the right time, or too careless, he had better 
not sow one at all, but sow the alfalfa alone. 

West of the Missouri Eiver it is usually too dry 
to permit the use of a nurse crop. South of the Ohio 
Eiver it is safer and better to sow alone in the fall 
or mid-summer with no nurse crop. 

It is most tempting when one sees a magnificent 
growth of oats or barley on the land to say, ''I must 
let that ripen; it is too fine to cut down for hay"; 



204 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and the letting it ripen will usually damage the 
alfalfa stand about 25 to 50 per cent. I have re- 
peatedly asked a lady for a half-cup of tea and 
never in my life found but one who could give it ! 
All the rest would fill the cup full. So if the reader 
is one of the few men who can resolve to cut his 
nurse crop for hay at the proper time, he should, 
if he lives in a similar climate to ours, use a nurse 
crop. Otherwise he should sow alfalfa alone. 

Fall Seeding of Alfalfa. — There seems a large 
area where fall seeding is more successful than 
spring seeding. Where fall seeding succeeds it is 
the cheaper way. The use of the land is not lost for 
any appreciable time, and often one gets a full crop 
of some sort of grain before seeding his alfalfa. 
Northern Ohio seems adapted to fall or rather mid- 
summer seeding of alfalfa ; also New York, in parts 
at least, a good deal of Pennsylvania and much of 
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, In 
Missouri some practice one way, some another ; Kan- 
sas and Nebraska seem to get good results from fall, 
or better, mid-summer seeding. In Iowa summer 
seeding is advised. 

The reason why alfalfa usually thrives when sown 
in mid-summer or early fall is that then there is 
less crowding by weeds and especially by annual 
grass. Furthermore, alfalfa is a heat-loving plant 
and it pushes rapidly forward if the seedbed is good 
and it gets started in late July or August. It is 
very essential that the seedbed be good, and no 
pains should be spared to make it so. 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 205 

Spring Ploiving and Summer Solving. — Some 
have practiced spring plowing of the land and after- 
ward harrowing it after every rain, after every 
appearance of weed growth, until all the weed seeds 
are killed, then sowing the alfalfa alone in July. 
Usually this results in a good stand. The cost is 
considerable. No return from the land is had at 
all for one year and the repeated harrowings cost 
quite a little. It is one of the surest ways, perhaps, 
of getting alfalfa started in land very foul with 
grass and weeds. I do not advise this plan except 
in cases where it is extremely difficult to get a stand. 
By harrowing well after each rain nearly all of 
the moisture is conserved. Thus it is a plan well 
adapted to use in semi-arid regions where it is not 
easy to establish alfalfa because of lack of moisture 
in the soil. In such situations the land should be 
plowed in the fall and disked after each rain or 
snow fall and all care possible taken to conserve the 
moisture that falls. After once the land is moist 
down to a depth of a foot or more and a thoroughly 
good seedbed is secured then the alfalfa may be 
sown, though in such situations il is usually well to 
defer sowing till August. The state of tilth of 
soil and the amount of available moisture are more 
important determining factors, however, than the 
time of year in dry regions, where alfalfa does not 
heave out by frost in any event. 

I can not from my own experience recommend 
this plan of seeding for any states in the cornbelt 
region, since it is an unnecessary expense and no 



206 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

more successful, so far as I have seen, than several 
other less costly plans. 

Seeding After Early Potatoes. — The land may be 
plowed early and deep, fitted as soon as it is ready 
to work and planted to potatoes, choosing some very 
early maturing variety. There is hardly any better 
plan than this. The potatoes well repay high manur- 
ing and fertilization. They should have plenty of 
phosphoric acid given them; in the eastern states 
it is common to give early potatoes as much as 500 
to 1,000 pounds of high grade acid phosphate per 
acre; potash also usually tells a good tale when 
applied to potatoes. Thus if the crop is highly fer- 
tilized there remains a good surplus in the soil 
available to the alfalfa. 

The potatoes well repay good cultivation and thus 
weeds are destroyed and when the potatoes are dug 
the land is left clean and thoroughly well loosened 
up. It is an easy matter then to level it off, disk 
it well and get ready for alfalfa seeding. This can 
usually be done in July and as soon as the pota- 
toes are fit to dig and sell they should come out 
to make room for the alfalfa, the more important 
crop of the two by odds. 

Do not plow the potato land. Disk it very thor- 
oughly, then disk it again. If the soil is too dry to 
make alfalfa grow, wait for rain before sowing the 
seed. Should there come a shower, disk again and 
wait for a rain that will moisten the underlying 
soil. There is danger in sowing alfalfa seed in the 
dust, expecting rain to come and bring it forward. 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 207 

Rain may come, certainly, but often in only sufficient 
amount to bring the seed up, or merely to germinate 
it, and underneath there is dust. Thus the seed- 
lings perish before they can get their rootlets at- 
tached to the subsoil. So wait till there is moist 
soil enough not merely to bring up the seeds but 
to let their rootlets feed and penetrate on down. 

Inoculation an Aid. — When sowing alfalfa either 
in July or August one must remember that the time 
until fall and killing frosts is short, so do all that he 
can to hurry it forward. Thus it is well if the land 
has never had alfalfa on it before, nor ever been 
manured with manure made from feeding alfalfa 
hay, to inoculate the soil. Inoculation hastens 
growth in young alfalfa immensely. Soil from a 
successful alfalfa field, or soil from a patch of mel- 
ilotus or sweet clover, or soil from where burr 
clover grew is usually successful in inoculating al- 
falfa. The various cultures of beneficent bacteria 
have not worked well in field practice, we regret to 
say. So take earth from some other field and inoc- 
ulate the place you expect to put your new sown 
alfalfa in. There are various ways of distributing 
this inoculation. If the soil has been thoroughly 
well limed, or is naturally well stored with carbon- 
ate of lime, and if it has had some manure, inocula- 
tion will 'Hake'' in it and go through the field very 
rapidly, once give it a start. 

Seeding. — Sow it in any manner most convenient, 
either through a wheelbarrow seeder or through a 
drill, taking great care not to drill it in too deep. 



208 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Go immediately over the land with an efficient har- 
row, trying to cover the seed one inch deep. It 
is no harm to apply more fertilizer at the time of 
sowing this seed. It will only push the young plants 
the more rapidly forward. 

In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and other 
states of like climates this seeding should be done 
in late July or early August. It is essential to get 
the plants strongly rooted before winter sets in 
with its frosts and cold. The stronger the root the 
less liability to winter killing. 

Subsequent Treatment, — No clipping, no pastur- 
ing nor any other treatment should be given the 
alfalfa this season. Simply let it alone and keep 
all animals out of it. The only thing that might 
cause a man to meddle with it would be if he should 
discover some dodder in the field. This should be 
destroyed as soon as seen. Pull up the infected 
plants and burn them. Throw down a little straw 
on the spot where the dodder has appeared and set 
it on fire. Dodder is worse than fire to alfalfa. No 
other weeds will be apt to trouble. If any large, 
coarse weeds should come up they may be pulled 
up by hand. 

There is hardly any better way of starting alfalfa 
than this if a man has a liking for potatoes. The 
crop usually pays well for use of the land, and the 
alfalfa crop comes on strong and is secured at 
the least possible expense. 

Summary. — Summarizing the process of sowing 
alfalfa after potatoes, the essentials are, first, selec- 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 209 

tion of good dry rich land, witli plenty of lime in it, 
or else applying liberally of lime before planting. 

Deep plowing and somewhat high fertilization for 
the potato crop. Planting as early as practicable 
of a very early-maturing variety of potatoes. 

Very careful cultivation that will conserve all 
possible moisture and destroy the weeds well. 

Digging as early as possible and immediate prep- 
aration of the soil for alfalfa. 

Inoculating when needed with soil from a success- 
ful alfalfa field or a sweet clover patch and sowing 
the seed as soon as there is a good seedbed and 
enough moisture in it. Covering the seed about an 
inch deep with the harrow. 

Leaving the alfalfa alone, no matter how high it 
gets, leaving all the growth to protect it in winter. 

Fall Seeding After Wheat. — It is often desirable 
to sow alfalfa after a crop of grain. This is prac- 
tical enough if the season proves not too dry. Al- 
falfa best follows a crop of winter grain, since that 
ripens earlier than spring sown grain. Perhaps the 
worst defect in the practice of following alfalfa 
after wheat arises from the fact that if the land 
is as fertile as it ought to be to grow a heavy crop 
of alfalfa the wheat is apt to lodge. There are 
soils, however, so well balanced that they will grow 
both excellent wheat and heavy crops of afalfa. I 
have seen in France wheat as high as oxens' backs, 
yet not lodged at all, growing on alfalfa sod, and 
destined to grow alfalfa again in the regular rota- 
tion. 



210 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Preparation for Crop. — When alfalfa is to follow 
wheat the land may be well limed in the fall before 
the wheat is sown, if it is in need of lime. As early 
as possible the wheat shocks should be taken off 
and immediately the plow started in the stubble. 
Now is a dangerous time, since one may so easily 
lose his moisture and get instead of a seedbed a 
mass of sunbaked clods that no harrowing will re- 
duce to fineness. To avoid this each half day what 
land is plowed should be fitted by use of harrow and 
drag, or perhaps use of roller, followed at once by 
harrow. It is not sufficient to fit each evening what 
has been plowed during the day, but each half day's 
work must be completed within that half day. This 
is also much the easier way. An hour spent upon 
freshly turned land will do more than a half day 
after the furrows have dried out into hard clods. 

Be not content, either, with a half preparation of 
the land. Do a good job of it. Use drag, disk and 
smoothing harrow. Make the earth fine. Seal up 
in it all the moisture it holds. It is work well spent. 
Since it must be done in any event it is wise and 
economical to do it immediately it is plowed, when 
an hour's work is worth a half day's later on. In 
order to do this best it may be well to let the man 
who does the plowing work till about 9:30 in the 
morning, then, unhitching from the plow, hitch to 
the plank drag and go over what he has plowed with 
that. Unhitching from it, hitch to the disk harrow, 
and after disking then go over it with the slant-tooth 
smoothing harrow, which finishes it pretty well and 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 211 

effectually seals the land so that no moisture can 
escape. Of course if several teams are plowing one 
man may follow steadily with tools for fitting the 
land. 

Save the moisture. It is wise not to sow the 
seed before there is plenty of moisture stored. In 
this connection the reader should study the preced- 
ing advice upon summer seeding. Save all the 
moisture you have and accumulate as much more 
as you possibly can before sowing the seed. And 
yet one can not safely delay sowing longer than 
till about the 10th of August, and if it can be sown in 
a good seedbed with sufficient moisture by the first 
of August all the better. The time of sowing is a 
local question. In Louisiana one can safely sow 
the last of October, yet north of the Ohio River late 
July and early August sowing is much safer than 
any later sowing. 

Inoculation in Advance. — It is well to inoculate 
the soil for this fall seeding, and the reader is asked 
to note with care what has been written elsewhere 
on this subject. One way of getting this inoculation 
in a wheat stubble is to sow some alfalfa seed in 
the wheat in March. If 5 pounds are then sown and 
harrowed in with a sprinkling of inoculating earth, 
say 100 pounds to the acre, and the soil and seed 
mixed together, it is probable that a fair growth of 
alfalfa will result -and the inoculation spread 
throughout the whole land. Then when the land is 
plowed again and the young alfalfa turned under 
the inoculation will be spread. Quite a little benefit 



212 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will be seen from the fertilizing effect of the young 
alfalfa turned under. And further one can judge 
quite well by the growth of this spring sown alfalfa 
as to the state of fitness of his land, whether maybe 
it needs more lime, more drainage or further enrich- 
ing. The cost need not concern you, since with good 
inoculation present less seed need be sown in the 
fall. Indeed 15 pounds of seed sown on a good 
seedbed well inoculated will give a better stand 
than will 30 pounds sown on a poorly prepared seed- 
bed or without good inoculation. 

Ordinarily it is of no use to sow alfalfa seed with 
the wheat in the fall. It usually perishes during 
winter. There are soils and climates, however, 
where it will succeed fairly well thus sown, and by 
this means good inoculation could be had. Five 
pounds of seed to the acre with about 100 pounds 
o.f inoculating earth should be sown then. 

All in all, to sow after wheat is a good prac- 
tice wherever fall seeding is desired and a soil-build- 
ing cover crop is not needed to prepare the land for 
alfalfa growing. The one danger is that there may 
not be enough moisture stored to give good fall 
growth. The alfalfa must not be clipped nor pas- 
tured the fall it is sown. The next year it is cut 
three or four times, as would be any ordinary alfalfa 
field. 

Alfalfa After Spring Barley. — ^Spring-sown grain 
has some advantages for alfalfa sowing. For one 
thing the soil is more easily got ready for alfalfa 
after the grain is removed. Then these grains are 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 218 

not SO apt to lodge if the soil is rich. Beardless spring 
barley is particularly appropriate here. It ripens 
very early and does not often lodge. It is almost 
impossible to make the soil too rich for spring bar- 
ley. It is advisable to plow the land for these spring 
crops and to plow it deep. It is well always to sow 
a small amount of alfalfa seed with the barley. 
If it is the custom to sow 20 pounds of alfalfa seed 
in the fall it will be much better to sow 5 pounds of 
this in the spring at time of seeding the barley. This 
will help the inoculation very much indeed and the 
15 pounds sown in the fall will give a better stand 
than would the whole 20 pounds sown at that time. 

The same rules laid down for sowing after pota- 
toes and wheat apply with equal force for sowing 
after spring barley and should be studied. 

The one trouble with all this scheme is that it pre- 
supposes a very fertile soil and quite a little rain- 
fall in late July and August. Given these things 
one ought to succeed admirably following this plan. 

Alfalfa After Oats. — What has been said of seed- 
ing after barley applies fairly well to oats. The 
field should be well plowed in spring. Five pounds 
of alfalfa seed should be sowed to each acre to pro- 
mote inoculation. If no alfalfa has ever grown 
on the land and inoculation is doubted, soil should 
also be spread or sown and promptly harrowed un- 
der. Then the oats if cut off for hay will leave a 
far better seedbed than if allowed to ripen. Ripen- 
ing oats draw tremendously on the soil moisture. It 
is a great help to mow them off for hay when coming 



214 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

into bloom. Thus the land may be prepared very 
much earlier for its destined crop of alfalfa. 

Alfalfa After Crimson Clover. — Where the cli- 
mate is mild enough to permit its growth crimson 
clover forms an admirable preparatory crop for fall 
sown alfalfa. The subject is mentioned in an earlier 
chapter, but I will here sum up its advantages and 
manner of use. Crimson clover is an annual. Sown 
in the late summer it grows during the fall and 
whenever it can during warm days in winter. It 
makes very rapid growth in spring, blooms in May, 
ripens seed and dies. It is not a good clover for for- 
age unless fed off green. Half ripe crimson clover 
heads are dangerous when fed to animals, making 
^'hair balls'' in their stomachs and killing them some- 
times. A fairly good crop of crimson clover will 
yield to the soil as much nitrogen as would cost $15 
per acre, if one were to^ purchase it in the bag. It 
comes off or goes under early enough to make easy 
the preparation of a good seedbed. There is seldom 
danger of insufficient moisture when crimson clover 
is the crop preceding alfalfa, supposing the land to 
be well managed after the clover is ready to turn 
under. 

On the other hand crimson clover does not thrive 
well without inoculation, and natural inoculation 
seems absent except along the Atlantic seaboard. 
Doubtless artificial soil inoculation would result in 
great gain with this plant elsewhere. Crimson clo- 
ver provides a great deal of very valuable humus. 

Mr, Jack's Use of Crimson Clover, — In eastern 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 215 

Virginia, under the direction of C. V. Piper, J. M. 
"Westgate and Nicholas Sclimitz of the Department 
of Agriculture, J. F. Jack is sowing what may 
be well termed an alfalfa ranch. His estate consists 
of nearly 2,000 acres along the Eappahannock Eiver, 
When Mr. Jack took this land much of it was in a 
most impoverished condition. 

The land is first iDlowed and planted to corn with 
250 pounds per acre of raw bone meal. Sometimes 
other fertilizers are used. The plowing is deeper 
and more thorough than the land has ever known 
before. 

Next, at last cultivation of corn, crimson clover 
seed is sown at the rate of about 20 to 30 pounds 
per acre. A small growing wild hairy clover is 
found on these fields that probably inoculates the 
crimson clover and it grows well. In May this 
crimson clover is knee high all over the fields. Then 
it is turned under, plowing about 8 inches deep. Lime 
is put on, either ground limestone at the rate of 
about 2 to 3 tons per acre or burned lime. Intensive 
cultivation is given the land till August, the pur- 
pose being to store the land with as much moisture 
as possible. 

Then men come and sow with hand labor inoc- 
ulating earth. This Mr. Jack can get from his 
own farm, though originally he had it shipped to 
him from sweet clover beds along the Potomac 
Eiver. Immediately behind the men who distribute 
the earth walk other men with wheelbarrow seeders 
and distribute alfalfa seed. Behind these men come 



216 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

harrows and almost instantly the seed and inocu- 
lating earth are covered np. The fertilizer is usu- 
ally 400 pounds per acre of raw bone meal, though 
other sources of phosphorus have been used as well. 

The result is as certain as mathematics. Mr. Jack 
at Belle Grove gets stands of alfalfa every time, 
good, thrifty, healthy, profitable alfalfa. 

It is very notable, however, that wherever Mr. 
Jack has applied a little manure there he gets much 
stronger crimson clover and much heavier alfalfa 
as well. It is not yet proved that a man can build 
successfully very poor soils without manures. Cer- 
tainly the work is greatly accelerated when manures 
are available. 

I have treated at some length the experiences 
of Mr. Jack because I know of no more impor- 
tant work being done anywhere in the east. Here 
one sees land taken in impoverished condition fairly 
representing millions of acres of farming lands in 
the older eastern states, unprofitable to farm, worth- 
less as an investment unless redeemed, and by appli- 
cation of plain and well tested agricultural prin- 
ciples brought rapidly into profitable culture again. 
Mr. Jack's success, doing this work on a large scale 
and as a business venture, is a lesson in soil build- 
ing and business methods in farming of illumining 
importance to the whole farming world. 

Rate of Seed per Acre. — There are in a bushel of 
alfalfa seed about 14,000,000 seeds, more or less, 
according to their size and weight. Thirty pounds 
to the acre then would put about 160 seeds to the 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 217 

square foot — sometliing over one seed to eacli square 
inch of soil. An alfalfa plant requires about 16 to 
25 square inches of space. Thus use of 30 pounds 
of seed is from 16 to 25 times too much, supposing 
that each seed dropped made a living plant. When 
sown in drills one pound of seed is enough for an 
acre, and seeding in drills will be a practical scheme 
in America. 

One pound of seed per acre makes approximately 
&Ye seeds to each square foot. There ought to be 
nine plants per square foot to make a good stand 
on ordinary soil fit for alfalfa growing. That would 
require two pounds of seed, sown broadcast, if 
every seed made a plant. The germination of alfalfa 
seeds is not usually perfect; often with the best 
seed only about 75 per cent will germinate the first 
year. And not every seed will be covered right for 
germination. Thus if we allow half to perish for 
lack of right planting we will come to a need of four 
pounds of seed per acre to give an ideally perfect 
stand. 

As a matter of fact this amount is often sown. 
Where one desires to grow alfalfa seed a thin stand 
is better than a thick stand and four pounds of seed 
will suffice. Of course one must be sure of his seed- 
bed and of his seed if he ventures to use so thin a 
seeding. And he ought to be sure that the land is 
inoculated. On inoculated soil a thin seeding will 
give a better stand than a thick seeding will on un- 
inoculated soil. 

The Ohio experiment station has made an inter- 



218 



ALFA"LFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



esting test of this very matter and the results are 
herewith recorded: 

The Ohio station put out a thick and thin seeding test of 
alfalfa June 27, 1907, at the rates of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds 
of seed per acre. The seed was distributed through the grass- 
seeding attachment of an ordinary wheat drill after repeated and 
careful testing. It was dropped in front of and covered by the 
drill hoes. 

The results of this test thus far appear in the following table: 

THICK AND THIN SEEDING OF ALFALFA. 



SEED USED PER ACRE. 



5 pounds 
10 pounds 
15 pounds 
20 pounds 
25 pounds 



No. plants 
per sq. foot 
July 31, 1907. 



No. plants 
per sq. foot 
May 2, 1908. 



Total pounds hay 
per acre, 1908 
(3 cutting-s). 



7,863 
8,648 
8,678 
8,557 
7,876 



It will be noted that the maximum yield was harvested from 
the plot receiving 15 pounds of seed per acre, but that 10 pounds 
of seed gave within 30 pounds of as large a yield of hay per 
acre. The yield from 20 pounds of seed is somewhat lower than 
from 10 and 15 pounds, and the yield from 25 pounds decidedly 
lower, exceeding the yield from 5 pounds by an insignificant 
amount. 

It should be stated that 5 pounds of seed per acre proved a 
little light in so far as holding the weeds in check is concerned. 
If a few large weeds had not been removed from this plot it 
would have presented a somewhat ragged appearance. This 
being done the quality of the alfalfa was as satisfactory as on 
any plot. 

This ground was in ideal condition for alfalfa when seeded, 
having been plowed some eight weeks previous and harrowed at 
intervals of 10 to 20 days until seeded. Under such conditions 
10 to 15 pounds of seed per acre would seem to be enough. It is 
to be doubted whether more than 15 pounds of alfalfa seed per 
acre is needed in this state when a good seed bed is prepared, 
and it is surely cheaper to prepare such a seed bed than to buy 
alfalfa seed to waste among clods, or in a loose, dried out soil. 

As a matter of experience extending over many 
years I advise the use of 15 to 20 pounds of seed 
for ordinary soils and under ordinary conditions. 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 219 

While it is true tliat this gives a good many more 
plants than are needed, yet these will crowd each 
other out in time and about enough will survive to 
make an ideal stand. An extra alfalfa plant is 
simply a weed in the field, but it is the best weed 
that can be selected, and it undoubtedly deters the 
growth of other weeds to a greater or less extent. 

Thick Fall Seeding Wrong. — Men have sown as 
much as 40 pounds of seed to the acre in the fall. 
This is a serious error. The plants standing so thick- 
ly, more than 200 of them to the square foot, so 
crowd each other that they can not grow as they 
ought, and so no root gets strong as it should before 
the winter sets in. The result is that the frost lifts 
and destroys a large percentage of them all. With 
half the seed sown and stronger plants more would 
have been alive in the spring. 

Curiously enough the better the land is adapted to 
alfalfa growing the fewer plants an acre of it will 
carry. I have seen wonderful alfalfa meadows with 
no more than 40,000 or 50,000 plants to the acre. 
Each root, however, had many stools and stems, 
a hundred perhaps or more from the one root. 

Sowing the Seed. — If the seed is sown on freshly 
harrowed land it is best. The seedbed should be 
firm, well worked down, yet freshly stirred. Thus 
the seed stick wherever they happen to strike and do 
not roll around or get in bunches. The manner of 
distribution is not very essential. Perhaps the most 
even distribution is had by the wheelbarrow seeder. 
Any of the commercial seed sowers on the market 



220 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will do good work in capable hands. An end gate 
broadcast seeder tbat may be attached to any wagon 
will do good work. It may be sown by hand if the 
operator understands seed sowing, or it may be sown 
with a drill, letting the seed fall behind or in front 
of the hoes, according to circumstances and the con- 
dition of the ground. The aim is ultimately to cover 
the seed an inch or about an inch deep. The harrow 
may follow the sower and finish the covering. Prob- 
ably for this purpose the common slant-tooth 
smoothing harrow is the best implement. When seed 
and inoculating soil are applied together, the drill 
or fertilizer distributer is the best implement to 
use. 

Drilling in the Seed. — The American Seeding Ma- 
chine Co. has developed a drill that will sow alfalfa 
seed accurately in rows 6'^ apart, putting it in at any 
desired depth. I have seen alfalfa sown with one of 
these machines, with 20 pounds of seed to the acre, 
that was at least 10 times too thick. It is evident that 
with a perfect seedbed and a proper alfalfa drill one 
need sow no more than 5 pounds of seed to the acre. 
This means a fine seedbed, firm underneath, level and 
smooth. The saving of seed would pay for all the 
labor of preparing the seedbed and the resultant 
thrift of the alfalfa would be very fine to see. This 
machine will drill in 4 pounds of seed to the acre, and 
to a required depth. 

Alfalfa with Bed Clover for Inoculation. — When- 
ever it is suspected that alfalfa may be adapted to 
a soil and red clover is to be sown there in the reg- 



SEEDING AND CUTTING. 221 

ular rotation, alfalfa should be mixed with the clover 
seed. If 10 per cent of alfalfa seed is used it will be 
enough to give a good sprinkling of alfalfa plants 
and later a thorough inoculation of the land. How 
this inoculation comes we do not know. Certain it 
is that when alfalfa is sown on suitable soil, dry and 
with lime enough, it becomes inoculated in a year 
or two by natural means. Thus two things are ac- 
complished: One gets a good general idea of the 
suitability of the soil to alfalfa and he gets it in- 
oculated so that when a little later he sows alfalfa 
alone it assuredly grows strong from the start. 

Furthermore, the mixture of red clover and 
alfalfa is a good mixture anyway. It makes more 
hay and more pasture than red clover pure. It en- 
riches the soil more efficiently. Alfalfa is nearly as 
easily established as red clover. If sown with oats 
or if the wheat is harrowed to let the seed be covered 
it is certain to make a pretty good stand mixed in 
this way. 

Bed Clover with Alfalfa. — On the other hand, 
some men practice sowing red clover with alfalfa. 
They claim that with the addition of about 20 per 
cent of red clover seed to the alfalfa they get a heav- 
ier yield of hay the first year following the seeding 
and the next year pure alfalfa results which outyields 
adjoining fields or plots that have had no red clover 
in them. That is, the decay of the red clover roots, 
they assert, enriches the soil for the alfalfa. This 
is said of some soils in Pennsylvania. In my own 
experience this is not a very good practice, since 



222 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

it leaves the alfalfa a little tliin on the ground after 
the clover has died out, but I have not tried it more 
than once or twice. 

Alsike Clover and Alfalfa. — These sow well to- 
gether and make wonderful forage either for soiling, 
feeding off for pasturage or for hay. It is best, of 
course, to call it an alsike field and treat it as though 
no alfalfa were sown in it, since the alfalfa is much 
more permanent than the alsike, Alsike, however, is 
in some soils more permanent than red clover and 
will sometimes last as long as four or five years. It 
does not cut more than one, or at most two, crops of 
hay in a year. Some of the loveliest pasturage the 
writer has ever seen has been a mixture of alsike 
clover, alfalfa and smooth brome grass. 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 

Many once deep, dark mysteries are now cleared 
up so that we smile at what once made men despair. 
Alfalfa growing was once as deep a mystery as any 
one could name. Sown in Colorado, Utah or Cali- 
fornia alfalfa thrived from the start almost. Sown 
in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky or New York it often 
failed. When it lived it was for some months or a 
year or more a feeble, unhappy, sickly plant. After a 
time perhaps it recovered and made wonderful 
growth. 

Why This Difference? — Why should it behave so 
differently in different regions? Of course there 
are several answers to this query. One is that some 
soils are filled with lime and phosphorus, are dry 
and filled with air. Alfalfa loves such soils. But 
the other and more hidden and mysterious reason 
is that of the nitrifying bacteria that help alfalfa 
grow. These bacteria are naturally present in some 
soils. They live on more species of legumes than 
alfalfa alone. Burr clover (Medicago arabica or 
Medicago denticulata) carries the same inoculation, 
uses the same bacteria. So does sweet clover or 
melilotus. Doubtless there are other wild legumes 
growing in western arid soils that use the same bac- 
teria. On the other hand, in eastern soils these bac- 
teria were absent almost altogether. 

One of the best illustrations of the lack of inoculat- 



224 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ing bacteria was seen in Christian County, Kentucky. 
A field of good limestone soil was well enriched 
and sown to alfalfa in the fall. A fine stand re- 
sulted and I visited it the next spring, some time 
early in May. The alfalfa was short, stunted, of yel- 
low color, clearly destined to be a failure. Careful 
search revealed no nodules on the roots. One bunch 
of thrifty alfalfa was in the middle of the field, 
another at one edge, near where had stood a negro's 
cabin. I dug up these plants and found abundant 
inoculation, the nodules being plentiful. I dug out 
the soil around these spots and threw it over the 
field. Eains distributed the bacteria still further, 
so that in a year the whole field was inoculated and 
yielded a heavy crop of hay, about six tons to the 
acre. The land had been well limed. 

Vital Relation of Bacteria. — What is the vital re- 
lation between bacteria and alfalfa? I make no 
pretense to exact scientific knowledge on this ques- 
tion. As near as I understand it the case is about 
as follows: Alfalfa is a legume. All or nearly all 
leguminous plants are aided in their growth by bac- 
teria that associate themselves with. the plants, living 
on the roots or on the rootlets. With plants using 
these bacteria existence without them is precarious 
and often impossible. 

Securing Nitrogen. — The problem of fertility, of 
production of plants, of crop yield is a curious one. 
Some elements going to make up plants are mineral ; 
these we find in the ash of plants. A large part is 
water; this comes easily enough from the soil. A 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 225 

large part is carbon; carbon is taken from tlie air 
by the leaves of the plant. There is plenty of car- 
bon always for plant growth. There is usually 
plenty of water. Mineral elements — potash, phos- 
phorus, lime, iron and so on — are easily enough 
added to the soil. The sole remaining element is 
nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the essential elements 
in the proteins of food, the albumens. Nitrogen is 
essential to nearly all life, animal and plant. All the 
higher animals need much nitrogen in their foods. 
All the grains have in them much nitrogen. Nearly 
all crops taken away from the soil remove a great 
deal of nitrogen. Soil waters leach it away. Since 
the beginning of the world everything has preyed 
upon the nitrogen of the soil. The rocks in the be- 
ginning held little or none of it. Whence did the 
soils then obtain their nitrogen supply! 

Tico Classes of Plants.— Tlaere are two classes, 
very broadly speaking, of plants in the world, the 
nitrogen gatherers and the nitrogen users. Corn, 
wheat, the grasses, potatoes, flax, oats, nearly all 
farm crops use nitrogen and can not get it except 
as it is already stored for them in the soil. That 
at least is as far as we know now. At any rate 
soils grow poor in nitrogen when crops of corn, 
wheat, hay or almost any crop except clover or some 
other legume is grown upon it. Certain crops are 
soil builders. Certain other crops are soil robbers. 
The legumes are the soil builders. They get nitrogen 
in some way. How do they do this? 

Abundant Nitrogen in ^ir,— Nitrogen exists in 



226 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

enormous amounts in the air. Nearly 80% of the 
air is pure nitrogen. Why can not the leaves take 
it directly in as they do their carbon from the air I 
That we do not know, but they can not do it. Plants 
will starve and perish for nitrogen with their leaves 
bathed in that substance, with their roots surround- 
ed with it as well, for in all porous soils there is 
much air. 

About Bacteria. — Bacteria do the work. Bacteria 
are very minute plants, sometimes almost like ani- 
mals in having some power of motion. Yeast is a 
bacteria. They are intensely minute. It would take 
5,200 of them, placed in a row, to be an inch long. 
Twenty-seven million could be on a square inch of 
space. A farmer can not ever hope to see one; it 
takes a powerful microscope to show one, yet any 
farmer can see the work they do. 

It is thought that there is really only one sort of 
bacteria for all the clovers, but that habit has divided 
them into varieties, similar yet unable to live on the 
same plants. Thus there are the red clover bacteria, 
the cowpea bacteria, the alfalfa bacteria, and many 
more. Some bacteria live on several different plants, 
just as the alfalfa bacteria thrive on melilotus, al- 
falfa and burr clover. 

These bacteria when they touch a tiny rootlet of 
alfalfa have power to enter it and abide there. They 
increase there and swarm in incredible numbers. 
They are really parasites upon the plant, most like- 
ly. The plant attacked puts out a protective cover- 
ing, thus forming a swelling nodule on the little 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 227 

rootlet. This nodule is filled with these bacteria. 
Nodules are not all alike ; some look like little seeds, 
some like bunches of grapes. They vary in size and 
shape very much. Nodules on alfalfa plants are 
rather smaller usually than alfalfa seeds. They 
exist only on the root hairs. Evidently these bac- 
teria prefer the new fresh roots. 

The Work of Bacteria. — What do the bacteria do 
for the plant! In some way they digest nitrogen 
and assimilate it. In some way the plant gets it. 
How? We do not know that. Maybe they die and 
decay and the plant absorbs them. Maybe the plant 
assimilates part of them before they get old enough 
to die. Anyway we know that they get hold of the 
nitrogen that exists in the air and that comes down 
into the soil through its pores, get hold of it, use it 
and give it to the plants. That is the miracle that 
lets life exist on this world of ours. A happy chance 1 
Yes, or a thought of God. It is certain that were it 
not for this ^^ chance," human life, and animal life as 
well, would ultimately perish from the face of the 
earth. On such tiny beings as these bacteria does all 
life on the world hang for its ultimate existence. 
Thoughtful men have long felt alarm over the state 
of the world as far as the food supply of the people 
was concerned, all because of this very drain of nitro- 
gen from the soils by crop growing. Dr. Cyril G-. 
Hopkins says : 

But a short time ago Sir William Crookes predicted that 
within thirty or forty years England would experience a wheat 
famine, due to the exhaustion of nitrogen in the soil, that would 
be appalling in its effect; and Prof, Bela Korasey's warnings to 



228 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Hungary have been even more emphatic. Indeed, Liebig, more 
than fifty years ago, in speaking of one of the most common 
methods of destroying sources of available nitrogen, said: 

"Nothing will more certainly consummate the ruin of Eng- 
land than the scarcity of fertilizers. It means the scarcity of 
food. It is impossible that such a sinful violation of the divine 
laws of nature should forever remain unpunished, and the time 
will probably come for England, sooner than for any other coun- 
try, when, with all her wealth in gold, iron, and coal, she will be 
unable to buy one-thousandth part of the food which she has 
during hundreds of years thrown recklessly away." 

To produce goad crops of alfalfc without the nitrogen gather- 
ing bacteria requires exceedingly rich soil and liberal applica- 
tions of barnyard manure or other nitrogenous fertilizer. Even 
the rich black prairie soil of Illinois does not furnish sufficient 
available nitrogen for maximum crops of alfalfa. No other crop 
grown in Illinois requires such large quantities of nitrogen as 
alfalfa. 

Applications of available nitrogen to Illinois soil produce 
crops of alfalfa which yield from two to four times as much hay 
as crops which obtain all of their nitrogen from the natural 
supply of the soil. The inoculation of Illinois soil with the 
proper alfalfa bacteria enables the alfalfa to feed upon the in- 
exhaustible supply of free nitrogen in the air and the inoculated 
soil produces just as large crops of alfalfa as soil which has been 
heavily fertilized with commercial nitrogen. Nitrogen costs 
about 15 cents a pound in commercial fertilizers, and about 50 
pounds of nitrogen are required to produce one ton of alfalfa 
hay and the weight of the free nitrogen in the atmosphere is 
equal to about 12 pounds to each square inch of surface of the 
earth. 

In Summary. — Nitrogen is constantly being 
drained out of the soil by growing crops. Wheat, 
maize, oats, hay, nearly all farm crops take out nitro- 
gen. It is gathered together in the grains; a grain 
elevator represents the fertility of many a field. It 
goes to the cities ; it becomes the food of man. Ow- 
ing to our wasteful practice, hard to reform in mod- 
ern civilization, the nitrogen waste is poured into 
tiie sea. Soon would the soils of the world become 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 229 

barren and mankind starve and perish if the Cre- 
ative force of the world had not provided this means 
of renewing the nitrogen of the soiL The tiny bac- 
teria do it. All clovers gather nitrogen from the air. 
Alfalfa gathers more than any other known clover 
unless perhaps the sweet clover be an exception. Al- 
falfa powerfully enriches the soihon which it grows. 
Bacteria make it" possible to grow alfalfa. It will 
not grow long without the bacteria. 

Hoiv to Get Bacteria. — How are we to get them, 
how make them most healthful and vigorous? Many 
schemes have been tried for getting the bacteria in 
the soil. They can be reared artificially in cultures, 
and the seed treated with the culture, when each 
seed ought to be coated with a film of these bacteria. 
Each seed sown ought to produce a plant abundantly 
inoculated. These are the so-called commercial cul- 
tures. The theory is good. Unluckily some influence 
that we do not understand, maybe the action of di- 
rect light, usually destroys the vitality of the germs 
and the cultures do not work. There is hardly any 
evidence that these cultures are successful. It is 
too bad that it should be true: the theory is so 
plausible, the results, could they be secured, would 
be so delightful. I believe the thing could yet be 
brought to work, only that with the advance of 
good farming it will not be long till the demand for 
such cultures will cease, at least as far as alfalfa is 
concerned. Curiously enough these bacteria are 
very pervasive. Once a man begins to grow alfalfa 
on his farm and to use manure from alfalfa hay. 



230 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

very soon lie has the land all inoculated so that he 
can not sow a field anywhere that the bacteria do 
not find the young plants. And when once alfalfa 
has grown on a field the inoculation persists for 
several years after it is plowed up. We do not 
understand these things yet. Maybe we never will. 
It is mysterious that even the use of manure not 
made from alfalfa hay, on a farm where alfalfa has 
never grown, should often result in inoculating the 
soil with alfalfa bacteria. There is no doubt of this 
fact. I have seen it repeatedly. 

Inoculation with Soil. — Soil from a field where al- 
falfa has grown, or sweet clover (melilotus) has 
grown, or burr clover has grown, distributed over 
the new alfalfa field, is a safe and sure inoculation. 
Some suggest the danger of infecting the new field 
with weeds or with diseases by this practice. That 
danger is remote. One hundred pounds of soil will 
inoculate an acre quite well if it has good distribu- 
tion. That much soil is taken from a small place 
of only a few square feet. It would contain few 
seeds. A few sweet clover seeds in the soil do no 
harm to the alfalfa anyway. No other weeds are 
likely to be found where good clover or alfalfa is 
growing. 

Method of Using Soil. — How to best manage this 
soil inoculation? Take the soil from the surface 
down as deep as the land is well filled with roots. 
Dig it and carry it home and put it on the barn 
floor. Spread it, not too thin, and work it over 
from time to time to help it dry and make it fine 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 231 

for sowing. Do not let the snn strike it even for 
a moment; sunlight destroys these bacteria. When 
you have it fine enough for sowing you can either 
mix it with the seed and sow both together, say 100 
pounds of soil and 15 or 20 pounds of seed, sowing 
them on an acre, or you can sow the seed and soil 
separately. If you have only a small field or plot to 
sow, do it late in the day after the sun has ceased 
to shine, and then harrow it at once. If you must 
spread it w'hile the sun is shining let the harrow 
follow immediately behind the soil sower. 

One can put the soil in a fertilizer drill and drill 
it into the land. Tli^t is an excellent way. Anyway 
will do so that the inoculating soil is not exposed to 
sunlight, but is covered up in the ground. 

Coating Seed ivith Earth. — The Illinois experi- 
ment station has developed a very successful way of 
inoculating alfalfa seed, requiring comparatively 
little soil for its complete success. Water is heated 
and enough glue dissolved in it to make the water a 
trifle sticky. It is then cooled and the seed is well 
wetted with this water. Earth taken from a good al- 
falfa field or sweet clover patch is made fine and run 
through a sieve to take out lumps, roots and stones. 
It is better if the earth is dry, but it ought to be dried 
in a dark place, at least not exposed to sunlight. The 
earth and seed are mixed together till each seed is 
coated with a film of this dry and inoculated earth. 
No surplus earth need be used, so each seed is coated. 
The seed is immediately sown and covered as fast as 
sown in some manner. Perfect inoculation seems to 



232 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

result. Some farmers who have adopted this plan 
maintain that it is not even necessary to add glue to 
the water, though that would doubtless make it some- 
what more effective. 

Conditions Favorable to Bacteria. — Now to make 
those bacteria most healthful, most active, consider 
their tastes. Acids in the soil promptly kill them 
off. Much lime in the soil makes them very vig- 
orous and active. So make the soil sweet with lime, 
alkaline with lime, not sour. And they feed on air. 
So let the water out of the land and the air into it. 
Drain and subsoil or plow deep. Then the soil is 
ready to work miracles for you. Then one sees com- 
ing from the land rich crops of alfalfa, many times 
as much nitrogen as was originally in the soil, feed- 
ing his animals, feeding the soil if the manure is 
put back. 

Inoculation in Advance. — If one plans to sow al- 
falfa in a year or two he should begin by getting a 
source of inoculating soil on his own farm. Let 
him prepare a narrow strip of land across a field, 
lime it, drain it, enrich it, inoculate it and sow it 
to alfalfa. Do not say, ^'I will experiment here 
with alfalfa,'' Alfalfa is no experiment any longer. 
It is sure to grow on sweet dry rich soil with in- 
oculation. There is no chance of failure. But on 
this strip you will get indication of the readiness of 
your field for alfalfa. If it grows there vigorously 
all along, and stands the winter quite well, you 
know that your soil is dry enough, sweet enoug'h and 
rich enough for alfalfa. And from this land you 



INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 23S 

will get inoculating earth for all the rest of the 
farm. It may perhaps be necessary to ship in 
enoug'h for the first strip, though it is today a rare 
neighborhood that does not have in it either some 
sort of an alfalfa field with inoculated plants or a 
sweet clover patch. Once you have the strip of in- 
oculation on your farm you are independent; you 
can go on and enlarge as fast as you please. An 
acre of inoculated alfalfa would give soil enough for 
inoculating at least an entire county. 

Searching for Inoculation. — It is astonishing how 
few farmers have ever seen a nodule on a clover 
root. They are easily found, especially on some 
sorts of clovers. One can pull up almost any thrifty 
red clover root and find nodules in place, looking 
like little white seeds. On the red clover they are 
found on the larger roots, as well as on the finer 
root hairs. The little creeping White clover has 
nodules in plenty and they are easily found. Alfalfa 
has nodules only on the smaller finer root hairs. 
Thus they are not to be seen when one pulls vio- 
lently a plant from the soil, especially if the earth 
is hard and clayey. The little nodules remain in 
the earth. They are very easily dislodged from their 
hold on the roots. One must take the roots out with 
some care and perhaps will need to wash the earth 
away to find the nodules the first time. After he 
has seen them once and knows what to look for he 
will find them more easily the next time. 

Appearance Reveals Inoculation, — After one 
knows alfalfa well he can tell at a glance whether 



234 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a field or plant is inoculated. If it is of a rich 
green color, if it is growing fast, if it looks healthy 
and happy, be pretty sure that it is inoculated, 
whether you did it or Nature did it. If, on the other 
hand, it looks pale and yellow and unhappy and is 
crowded by weeds and altogether miserable, be sure 
that it is not inoculated. 

Inoculated Soil a Fertilizer Laboratory. — Consider 
what is doing in an inoculated soil where conditions 
are right and alfalfa is growing thereon. Take the 
yearly growth at only 4 tons per acre. Four tons 
of alfalfa hay contain about 176 pounds of nitro- 
gen, 40 pounds of phosphorus and 128 pounds of 
potash. Nitrogen is sold for about 15 cents per 
pound in various forms, often for a much higher 
price. Phosphorus is sold at a low price for 5 cents 
per pound. Potash is worth about the same price. 
Thus in the crop of 4 tons of hay we find nitrogen 
largely gathered by the bacteria worth $26.40, 
potash worth $6.40, phosphoric acid worth $2 — all 
these from one acre yielding only 4 tons of alfalfa 
hay. The total is $34.80. The manurial value of 
this yield is vastly more than this amount, since the 
humus contained is worth more to the soil than one 
can well estimate. And the value to the soil is nearly 
double this estimate since we take no account of the 
root growth, also stored with nitrogen. Prof. Voor- 
hees estimates the fertilizing value of an acre of al- 
falfa well grown to be about $65, in comparison of 
course with commercial fertilizers bought. 

Soil Building with Alfalfa.— One must not rashly 



INOCtTLATlON AND NITROGEN. 235 

conclude, however, that alfalfa used in any way is 
a soil builder. There is reason to suspect that al- 
falfa is one of the most energetic searchers after 
potash and phosphoric acid known to the soil. The 
roots go deeper, penetrate more, dissolve more than 
those of most plants. 

Thus if the alfalfa is all sold off from the farm 
it may become steadily poorer and poorer. It is 
certain that it would be poorer in mineral elements. 
There have been instances under the writer's ob- 
servation where the land 'has grown alfalfa continu- 
ously for some years and nothing returned, where 
after a time it would not grow alfalfa any longer, 
nor anything else very well. Exhaustion of avail- 
able phosphorus would seem to be the most rea- 
sonable explanation of this phenomenon. In some 
instances where alfalfa has grown well for some 
years and then failed it has been impossible to re- 
establish it <on the same land. This has occurred 
where hay 'has been sold off and nothing returned 
to the soil. 

Alfalfa is a vigorous soil enricher, provided the 
forage is fed on the farm and the manure religiously 
returned to the land, not necessarily to the very field 
where the alfalfa grew, but to some adjoining field. 
Thus the one field builds another, the two' may be 
set in alfalfa after a time and they will build a third 
and in this way through the magic of alfalfa roots 
a whole farm may be redeemed from the scourge of 
poverty and barrenness. Thus may vast stores of 
nitrogen be gathered. One may need to buy phos- 



236 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA, 

pliorus, possibly potash, often lime, but nitrogen, 
that most costly and most vital of all soil ingredi- 
ents, he is getting every day in immense amounts by 
the magic of alfalfa roots and their tiny allies the 
alfalfa bacteria. 



1 



ALFALFA IN GROP ROTATION. 

Wi'tli some men alfalfa is the best money crop 
that can be grown. Naturally these men desire to 
keep their land continuously in alfalfa. They prac- 
tice something like the following system : After the 
last crop of hay is cut in the fall the alfalfa stubble 
is plowed deeply and fitted and sown back to alfalfa 
in the spring. Or the alfalfa is mown off in May 
or early June, again in July, and is at once broken 
and sown to alfalfa in late July or early August. In 
some parts of Maryland alfalfa winters well the first 
year but kills the second winter. Thus they sow it 
each year and declare that no crop pays so well as 
forage for dairy cows. 

There may doubtless be instances ^here this is 
good practice for a time. It is true, nevertheless, 
that soils are better off to have a change of crops 
now and then, and crops are certainly better for 
fresh soils. While alfalfa is a soil enricher in the 
sense of adding stores of nitrogen it is a soil deplet- 
er so far as phosphorus and potash and lime go. 
More than that, there are hidden influences that we 
do not understand that make soils unfriendly to 
plants that have grown in them too long. It is not- 
able that some of the very oldest books on agricul- 
ture in referring to alfalfa say: ''It endures for 
many years and afterward may be plowed up and 
the land sown to corn. Land should not be sown 

(237) 



238 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

again to lucerne (alfalfa) till it has rested for some 
seasons.'' It is safe to assume that the ancients 
had seen signs that alfalfa best liked fresh land. 

Alfalfa culture is too new in America for us to 
know much about this question. It is the practice 
on Woodland Farm to grow alfalfa for four years 
on a field, sometimes for a longer time, then to plow 
and plant twice to corn (maize), after which the land 
is sown again to alfalfa. Some of our fields have 
had alfalfa on them for about 12 years all told. We 
do not think that we see any signs yet of deteriora- 
tion. In some instances we see that the alfalfa is 
much more vigorous than it ever was. We feed the 
soil, however, with phosphorus when growing alfalfa 
and with manure when growing corn. It is doubtless 
better to let a crop of some cereal or roots intervene 
between the crops of alfalfa and if two years inter- 
vene it may be wiser ; we do not know. 

There are yet no serious diseases of alfalfa preva- 
lent. On soils well stored with carbonate of lime 
alfalfa seems so vigorous and healthy that it resists 
disease most markedly. Yet there are illusive and 
hard to determine causes that make soils sicken of 
plants of one order and produce more vigorously 
of plants of a different order in rotation. 

Alfalfa in the Rotation. — It is often objected that 
alfalfa does not fit well into a rotation, that it is too 
long in getting established, too feeble an infant, and 
demands too long a use of the land. 

On land well suited to alfalfa growing it establishes 
itself as soon as does red clover. The following 



ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 239 

year after being sown it will make a half more hay 
than will red clover and the hay is of better quality. 
It may then be plowed under as red clover would be, 
or it may continue another year with more profit, 
while red clover can not, since that plant is almost 
biennial in its nature. So it is certainly not true 
that alfalfa can not fit into a rotation, no matter how 
short it is. 

Even as a catch crop in corn I found when I 
mixed red clover, alfalfa and crimson clover to- 
gether and sowed at last cultivation that I got more 
plants through the winter of alfalfa than of either 
of the other clovers. Doubtless on good lands, filled 
with lime, alfalfa as a manuring crop tO' be sown in 
corn would be more profitable than almost anything 
that could be sown. The difficulty in the way of 
this use is that usually the seed is too dear and when 
one gets a stand of alfalfa he sees too much profit 
in leaving it to let him desire to plow it under. 

Hoiv Long Should Alfalfa Stand? — This is very 
much a local question. We have instances of alfalfa 
fields 10, 20 even 40 years old that have never been 
re-seeded. I have walked over fields that were said 
to be 40 years old and they were yet in vigorous pro- 
duction. This was in Texas, near San Antonio. 
This book is not written for men Who can grow al- 
falfa in that way; they need no books save pocket- 
books. The fact that alfalfa is such a long-lived 
plant in dry regions with well drained soils and dry, 
warm winters has worked to mislead men living far- 
ther east or north. If they could forget that alfalfa 



240 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in some countries lives ten or a dozen years or more 
the men of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio or New York would 
be better off. The simple truth is that after the first 
year alfalfa is in its prime. It may yield as much 
the third year or may not. It will often begin to de- 
cline somewhat on the fourth year and may be not- 
ably less productive on the fifth year. By the sixth 
year the owner begins to wonder whether, after all, 
alfalfa is as valuable a crop as he had supposed and 
his neighbors begin to say ''I told you so!'' 

Now 'had this man turned under his alfalfa after 
it had given him 3 or 4 years of cuttings he would 
have had some twinges of conscience and pangs of 
remorse at w'hat he was doing, and his neighbors 
would have called him a fool for ' ' killing the golden 
goose, ' ' but he would have in the long run made more 
money and alfalfa would never have gone into dis- 
repute. 

Suggested Rotations. — In Ohio, Indiana and Illi- 
nois maize (corn) is king. Nothing else pays so 
well as corn and alfalfa, with animals to eat the stuff 
they pile up. Hence the most profitable rotation 
here will likely be, corn two years, alfalfa with bar- 
ley one year, alfalfa alone three or four years, ac- 
cording to soil, then corn again, two years, and thus 
on around in regular rotation. 

Rotation for a 300 Acre Farm. — Corn two years, 
barley and alfalfa one year, alfalfa three years, 
means a 6-year rotation. Let us see what one would 
get in that rotation each year. Say the fields are of 
40 acres each ; then he has 80 acres in corn on alfalfa 



ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 241 

sod, after the rotation is once under way. This corn 
ought to yield at least 85 bushels per acre, and may 
yield more than 100 bushels. One field will be on 
alfalfa sod simply, the other field will be corn stubble 
heavily manured. Thus there will be about 7,000 
bushels of corn, shelled measure. The next field will 
be a 40-acre field sown down to alfalfa with barley, 
either fall-sown alfalfa on barley stubble or spring- 
sown alfalfa with barley as a nurse crop. In the one 
case there will be about 1,000 bushels of barley grain, 
maybe more, and no hay from 'this 40. Then there 
will remain three fields of 40 acres each in estab- 
lished alfalfa, one of them sown last year, one the 
year before, one the year before that. These fields 
will yield about 4 tons of hay per acre, maybe more, 
or say 450 to 500 tons of hay. 

We have left about 60 acres for permanent pas- 
ture, orchard, barn lots, woodland and so on. Now 
let us sum up what we have as a yield from the 
300 acre farm: corn, 7,000 bushels; barley, 1,000 
bushels, or else, barley hay, with some alfalfa in it, 
50 to 75 tons ; alfalfa hay, 450 to 500 tons. Pasture 
left 60 acres, which will keep the work teams, cows 
and pigs during summer and give a good place for 
animals to run and exercise in cold weather when 
it will not do to let them step on the alfalfa field. 

As working horses need little or no grain in winter 
when they have good alfalfa hay it seems clear that 
the 7,000 bushels of corn will about balance the 450 
tons of hay. If there is need of more corn to feed 
out the pigs it can be bought. If cattle or sheep are 



242 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

to be fed, or dairy cows kept, one can hardly have 
too much alfalfa. 

The cash value of these crops would be about as 
follows : The farmer oould not sell all of the 7,000 
bushels of corn since his horses must be fed. He 
could sell 6,000 bushels, for say 50 cents per bushel or 
$3,000, or he could sell of his hay, 400 tons, by feed- 
ing his corn stover to his cows and work teams ; the 
hay would be worth about $8 per ton as an average 
low price, or $3,200 or more. The 1,000 bushels of 
barley would be worth say 60 cents, or $600. The 
gross returns then from the 300 acre farm devoted 
to corn and alfalfa would be around $6,800. And if 
one bought what phosphorus his crops took out of 
his soil it is probable that he could keep on selling 
off these crops for some years. It would certainly 
be far better to feed the crops, and the profits ought 
to be larger in proportion. 

Crop Failures. — ''Hold on!" I hear the reader 
say, ' ' do you not allow for crop failures in this esti- 
mate of yours V^ 

One has occasionally a poor year in corn growing. 
A crop failure in com grown on well drained, well 
enriched land, on alfalfa sod, has yet to be recorded. 
A crop failure with alfalfa has not yet been recorded. 
Certainly some years produce more than other years. 
Alfalfa is the safest and surest of all crops when 
established on kindly soil. The risk is very slight, 
only one has always the labor of harvest, not the 
labor of preparing the land each year, of eternally 
seeding. 



ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 243 

Saving of Labor Cost in Alfalfa Growing. — Note 
in this example that on the 320-acre farm only 80 
acres are plowed each year for corn, and 40 acres 
more plowed and sowed to alfalfa, only 120 acres 
of plowing in all. The rest of the land needs neither 
plowing nor planting; 60 acres of it in permanent 
pasture, 120 acres of it in alfalfa, already sown, 
already set, needing only the sun and showers to leap 
into joyful harvest. The saving of labor is tremen- 
dous on an alfalfa farm rightly managed. 

A Shorter Rotation. — One can use this rotation 
with corn and alfalfa; Corn one year, wheat one 
year, the stubble plowed and sown to alfalfa, al- 
falfa two years, then corn again. This takes four 
fields and is in many ways a good rotation, and a 
labor saver, too. How would it figure out on a 300- 
acre farm? 

Sixty acres are devoted to corn and as this is al- 
ways on alfalfa sod and must also have manure, we 
can not well escape a yield of 90 bushels per acre, or 
anyway 5,000 bushels. Corn stubble well prepared 
is a good place for wheat. The 60 acres of wheat 
then we will say produces 25 bushels per acre, or 
1,500 bushels. The wheat stubble is plowed instantly 
when the wheat is harvested and sown to alfalfa 
which is mown for two years. This gives 120 acres 
in alfalfa each year which will produce 480 or 500 
tons of hay. Then there are 60 acres of pasture, 
orchard and woodlot, as in the preceding example. 
Summing this up we have 5,000 bushels of corn, and 
selling 4.000 bushels at 50 cents gives $2,000. The 



244 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

1,500 bushels of wlieat may bring $1 per bushel and 
may not ; call it that and we have $1,500. By utiliz- 
ing the corn stover the alfalfa hay could mostly be 
sold ; say we sell 400 tons of it at $8, we have $3,200. 
Adding up we have gross sales in this instance of 
$6,700. The thing works out about the same. In 
some ways this is the better rotation. For one thing 
corn following corn, even for two years, suffers 
somewhat from insects. In this rotation corn is al- 
most absolutely sure as it is always on alfalfa sod 
and is manured as well. It should never yield less 
than 100 bushels per acre under such treatment. 

Work for this Rotation. — In this rotation one finds 
this amount of work to do each year : 60 acres of 
alfalfa sod to break. This should be mown off four 
times as the late mowing for some reason makes the 
roots easier to break. One good three-horse team 
of heavy horses will break the 60 acres, taking it in 
a leisurely fashion from October till spring, when- 
ever there is open weather. Alfalfa sod fits easily 
for corn. The wheat is sown in the clean corn 
stubble by simply disking and drilling in. It should 
have additional phosphorus to start it vigorously 
off before cold weather. The wheat stubble should 
be plowed very swiftly after the wheat is taken off, 
and here is the worst feature of this scheme ; at the 
same time one may need teams in the corn field and 
in the alfalfa meadow. It may be necessary to ar- 
range to hire additional teams at this time to get this 
seeding well and promptly done. It will greatly help 
if the wheat stubble is thoroughly disked the mo- 



ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 245 

ment the wheat is cut and shocked ; this will conserve 
moisture and make the plowing easier. Or on some 
soils and in some climates the disking alone will be 
all that is needed for alfalfa seeding, so it is very 
thorough. And again there are places where when 
the land is once well inoculated with bacteria alfalfa 
may be sown in the wheat in the spring with first 
rate stands resulting. If this is done the seed 
should not be sown early; the land should get dry 
enough to harrow and in April should be thoroughly 
harrowed, not enough to destroy the wheat, but 
enough to make a good seedbed, and the seed sown 
and dragged in. This often increases the yield of 
wheat and is pretty sure to result in a good stand of 
alfalfa. It is not safe to try this method of seeding 
except where wheat stands up well and Where the 
land is thoroughly well inoculated with bacteria. 

What Is Alfalfa Land WortM—CaYTjing these 
lwo examples to their conclusion, what is good al- 
falfa producing land in the cornbelt of America 
worth as an investment? 

Everything depen-ds upon the management. Here 
is an estimate of the cost of carrying on this farm : 

EXPENSES. 

Labor of 4 men for a year $1,600 

Interest on and deterioration in farm teams 500 

Extra labor in harvest, threshing- bill 400 

Depreciation in machinery, repairs, fertilizer 400 

Taxes and repair of fences 500 

Total $3,400 

INCOME. 

From sales of corn, wheat and alfalfa $6,700 

From colts, pigs, poultry, veals, (pasture) 300 

Total 87,000 

Less expense 3,400 

Net income $3,600 



246 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

This is 6% interest on $60,000. Thus the land 
yields return on a valuation of $200 per acre. 

Are these fanciful figures? Not at all, but plain 
matter of fact business. And while we are estimat- 
ing profits by sale of hay and grain, we do this only 
because it is the easily-done thing, urging all along 
that the hay and grain be fed on the farm and the 
manure returned to the land, when net profits will 
often be much greater than indicated above. 

Such Profits in Actual Practice. — And are there 
many farms now ready to yield corn and alfalfa in 
this fashion? No. Most farms need thorough un- 
der-draining first. Hardly any of Illinois is well 
enough drained for alfalfa, neither is much of In- 
diana or Ohio. Iowa has more dry land, perhaps. 
Nearly any farm that a man might choose to make 
into an alfalfa and corn farm would need much work 
before he could safely expect any such returns. He 
can find an acre, or a field that is all right; let him 
then determine that ere he is through with the thing 
it will all of it be good enough. Make it a legacy to 
the children to leave them a farm so well under- 
drained, so well limed, if lime is needed, so fertile 
that they can realize these results. It is easy; there 
is no step to be found out ; the way is clear and plain 
and the land will pay for the work as you go on. 

Rotation in the Dairy Region. — In northern Ohio, 
Illinois, Wisconsin and New York dairying is a great 
business. Here alfalfa is especially desirable and 
SO is silage corn. Here also potatoes thrive and are 



ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 247 

profitable. Let us see what sort of rotation is 
adapted to this region. 

A considerable amount of land will naturally be 
devoted to permanent pasture. Supposing we take 
160 acres of land to be put under the plow. We will 
begin with a field of potatoes, 40 acres, planted early, 
thoroughly well cultivated, dug early and marketed, 
say 200 bushels per acre. This is 8,000 bushels at 
50 cents, or $4,000. Alfalfa is sown after the pota- 
toes. This remains two years after the first year, 
thus 80 acres will be mown, or 320 tons of hay. 
Forty acres will be turned under each year for corn, 
part for the silo, part for the crib. On the alfalfa 
sod the corn will need no manure; this may all be 
applied to the corn stubble and the land planted to 
potatoes and thus back again to alfalfa. 

Ho IV Many Coivs? — Fifty cows will consume in six 
months about 100 tons of alfalfa hay. Letting them 
have a ration of it, as is wise, at milking time during 
summer, spring and fall they will get away easily 
with 150 tons. Horses will take a lot more and there 
will evidently be a surplus unless some good heifers 
are raised. Fifty cows will consume 200 tons of si- 
lage in six months. That will take the corn from 20 
acres or less of the 40 devoted to it and leave approxi- 
mately 20 acres to be ripened and put in crib. 

Profit from the Coivs. — As to the profit of keeping 
the 50 cows I prefer to let the experienced dairyman 
make the estimate. There are cows that yield as 
much as $125 in a year, and even much more than 
that, and others that drop far below $100. It is safe 



248 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

to leave the question with the dairyman, merely 
pointing out to him that with corn and alfalfa he 
needs buy no protein ; all that the old cow gives him 
will be his and will come from his own soil. And 
steadily, if he cares for the manure, will his farm im- 
prove in fertility. 

The Labor Cost. — The labor cost of this farm will 
not be very heavy, aside from the dairy work. Forty 
acres of alfalfa sod will be plowed each year for corn, 
40 acres sown to alfalfa after potatoes ; the rest of 
tillage work will be simple and easily managed. 
Should more than 50 cows be kept more of the corn 
will be made into silage, which may cause a need of 
some dry grain not produced on the farm, mainly 
for horse feeding. 



YIELD OF ALFALFA. 

I desire to raise no hopes in the reader's mind 
that can not be realized and I have thus sought to be 
moderate in my estimates of what alfalfa would 
yield per acre. It is a most interesting question to 
study, the possible yield of alfalfa in various soils. 
In California, with a very long growing season, we 
are assured that as much as 12 tons of dry hay has 
been harvested per acre. This of course was done 
by irrigation in a soil peculiarly well fitted to alfalfa 
growing. It may fairly be taken as the extreme 
limit of possibilities. There are alfalfa fields that 
because of unfitness of soil, do not yield more than 
one or two tons per acre. What then, ought we to 
get? 

Moisture the Limiting Factor. — Given plant food 
in the soil and proper bacterial relations alfalfa 
ought to grow about as well in one place as in an- 
other. The limiting factor in almost all crop pro- 
duction is water. Alfalfa usually does not have 
moisture enough to make a maximum crop. Even 
on wet soils, and chiefly on undrained soils, it does 
not have water enough. That is because its roots do 
not work in undrained soils so it must forage only 
on the surface. All plants drink their food ; they do 
not eat as animals do. Given water enough in a deep 
pervious soil that the roots can use, and plant food, 
alfalfa will do its best. 

(249) 



250 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

There is hardly any other plant that will so thor- 
oughly pump the moisture out of soils as alfalfa. 
Its roots reach down deep, its leaves transpire a 
vast amount of water every day. For that reason 
alfalfa is not usually very beneficial to a young 
orchard, as it dries out the land too much. The 
writer has seen a thick stand of Kentucky blue grass 
so dried out by the alfalfa growing with it (the grass 
an intruder) that it killed it out, root and branch. 
This of course is most unusual; as a rule the grass 
lives long enough to choke the alfalfa. 

Amount of Water Used. — Unfortunately no one has 
determined the amount of moisture used by alfalfa 
in making a pound of dry matter. Taking the red 
clover plant as a guide we may assume that it re- 
quires from 400 to 500 pounds of water for each 
pound of dry matter made. Guessing that it takes 
450 pounds of water to make one pound of dry mat- 
ter we reach the conclusion that to grow six tons of 
alfalfa hay will require about 2,500 tons of water. 
That is equivalent to about 25 inches of rainfall, if 
none of it were lost. There is beside a considerable 
loss by evaporation from the soil. To balance that 
we know that we have a store of subsoil moisture 
gathered during the winter and early spring rains. 

Now, the rainfall during the 18 weeks that alfalfa 
makes its hay crops (in the cornbelt region) is sel- 
dom more than 18 inches and is often very much less 
than that. So it is clear that lack of moisture is 
often the limiting factor in alfalfa growing. For 
that reason the writer, while he has grown six tons 



YIELD OF ALFALFA. 251 

on one acre on Woodland Farm repeatedly and has 
known of much heavier yields elsewhere, has not 
estimated that even good alfalfa would yield more 
than ^ve tons to the acre, and in fact advises grow- 
ers to be grateful if they get four tons — grateful, 
but not satisfied, as they should begin at once to con- 
sider in w'hat way they can bring up their average 
yield. 

It is unfair to the alfalfa plant to assume that it 
has no greater producing power than red clover, 
given the same amount of moisture. It probably 
makes much better use of its water than does red 
clover. And some varieties of alfalfa can do more 
with a given amount of water than can other varie- 
ties. Unfortunately we do not yet find any variety 
specially adapted to dry soils and hot climates that 
is at home in a rainy land or will do as much there 
as common alfalfa. 

Increasing Water-Holding Capacity. — In what 
way can the water-holding capacity of the land be 
increased? By deep draining, first, since that lets 
the alfalfa roots feed down deep. By deep plowing 
next. By use of the subsoil plow. The latter is in 
many soils a very potent factor in increasing the 
yield of alfalfa in dry years. 

Yields Under Irrigation. — In irrigated regions 
rainfall is of course not a limiting factor. There 
soil fertility, length of season and systems of man- 
agement control the yield very largely. I feel cer- 
tain that I have grown nearly 10 tons of dry alfalfa 
hay per acre on good land in a valley of Utah, under 



252 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a very hot sun, with abundant water and a long 
growing season. The practice was to flood the land 
immediately before mowing off the crop ; this made 
the alfalfa start vigorously into new growth as soon 
as it was raked off. In a week another flooding was 
given, the earth taking all the water it could absorb. 
As this land was beautifully drained by being under- 
laid with sand and gravel of great depth and no un- 
derlying moisture it never suffered from too much 
moisture ; thus growth was extremely rapid. 

Furthermore, in that arid region the subsoil is 
quite as fertile as the top soil. There is little differ- 
ence in texture Qr soil content whether one takes soil 
from the surface or from a depth of 20 feet or more, 
and doubtless the alfalfa roots penetrated quite 20 
feet in that soil. 

I. D. O'Donnell once pointed out to the writer 
near Billings, Mont., an irrigated farm of exactly 
160 acres, all in alfalfa except a small lot around the 
house and barn, maybe two acres in all, and from 
which he had bought the hay one year. It amounted 
to fully 1,000 tons, or a little more than six tons per 
acre. 

Irrigation is impractical under eastern farm con- 
ditions, as a rule. There are farms, however, near 
the mountains, in what might be called the Piedmont 
sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Virginia and the Carolinas, where irrigation would 
be quite easily arranged and some day this will be 
done. Irrigation would pay richly in the East as well 
as in the West. It is much practiced in humid Eng- 



YIELD OF ALFALFA. 253 

land, in France, Italy and other lands where farm- 
ing is carried to a high pitch of perfection. Irriga- 
tion of alfalfa is only practicable where soils are 
permeable so that any excess of moisture will read- 
ily sink away, or else are thoroughly well under- 
drained. 

Poverty of Soil a Factor. — After all the most fre- 
quent limiting factor in alfalfa production in the 
eastern states is soil fertility. There is not enough 
phosphorus in the land, or it lacks humus and bac- 
teria, or it lacks abundant carbonate of lime. On 
Woodland F.arm I once applied phosphorus to an 
alfalfa meadow set about three years, using acid 
phosphate at the rate of about 250 pounds per acre. 
S^trips were left with no phosphate to test the effect. 
Wliere additional phosphorus was given the land the 
yield of hay was nearly doubled. Thus about $2 
worth of fertilizer made a growth of about two tons 
of hay per acre. This astonishing profit from the 
use of phosphorus on alfalfa was the beginning of 
regular use of phosphate fertilizers on new meadows 
and old on Woodland Farm. 

The plain truth seems to be that along the 40th 
parallel, in the region of the corn belt we ought to 
mow at least four tons of alfalfa hay per acre and 
could, by making our soils right, get six tons with 
favoring seasons. 



DISKING AND CULTIVATING. 

In some regions it is a practice to disk alfalfa once 
or more each year. In Kansas and Oklahoma it is 
often practiced to disk once in the spring and again 
after each cutting as soon as the hay can be removed 
from the ground. It is believed that disking con- 
serves much moisture and otherwise promotes the 
growth of the alfalfa. It has often been asserted 
that the disking splits the crowns and thus thickens 
up the stand. This is as though one were to split 
down the tree trunks in his orchard ''to thicken the 
stand.'' The splitting of alfalfa crowns can do noth- 
ing but harm and often starts a decay of root that 
ends in the death of the plant. However, the result 
of disking is often beneficial when done in early 
spring, before growth sets in. It certainly deters 
weed and grass growth and lets air and water into 
the soil. Later diskings help in some regions and 
soils and do mischief in others. The main beneficial 
effect of disking is the conservation of mois'ture and 
destruction of weeds or grasses. 

In Louisiana disking alfalfa seems beneficial on 
the whole. In Kansas it is much practiced and some 
think it very helpful, while others declare that ex- 
cessive disking materially reduces the yield. On 
Woodland Farm disking when fertilizer was sown 
at the same time has done wonders; disking alone 
has in some instances decreased the yield. 

(254) 



DISKING AND CULTIVATING. 255 

Disk with Care. — Disking of alfalfa must be done 
with care and discrimination. If alfalfa roots are 
cut off by a disk harrow or any other instrument 
the plant dies. Old and tough roots are not in much 
danger of being cut off. Young alfalfa, with more 
slender roots, is easily enough injured or killed. 
Thus the disks should not be sharp as knife edges 
and should be set straight enough not to cut off the 
crowns. It is well for the owner of the field to drive 
the disk. Dig up the land as thoroughly as you 
please, but do not cut off many crowns. One may 
disk and immediately cross-disk in early spring, 
burying up the alfalfa crowns somewhat, and no 
harm will result as they will come through pretty 
soon. After this disking I think it much of a local 
question whether one should disk more or not. If 
blue grass has run in, or any perennial grass, it may 
be wise to dig it out or it may be wiser to turn it all 
under, plant corn, then re-seed. 

Prevention of Grass Best. — As a matter of fact, a 
dollar spent in buying carbonate of lime and phos- 
phorus, with drainage, will do more toward keeping 
weeds and grass out of alfalfa than two dollars 
warth of labor spent in disking. Where plantains 
come and weedy growths the soil is wrong; remedy 
that and the alfalfa will smother all else. Where 
crab grass troubles, as it does in the South, an abun- 
dant supply of carbonate of lime in the soil will 
make the alfalfa too much for it, unless perhaps it 
may come very late in the season, when it is not 
worth noticing. 



256 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The Alfalfa Harroiv. — There is a special alfalfa 
harrow made like a disk harrow only with oircles of 
shari3 spikes that are supposed to penetrate the 
ground and loosen it, throwing out the grass 
roots without injuring the alfalfa. The theory of 
this implement is good but in practice it does not 
work so well. There is difficulty in getting it to 
penetrate deeply and if it throws ont grass it is 
speedily wound up on the axle so that I am not at 
all certain that the machine will supersede the ordi- 
nary disk harrow. 

The Spring Tooth Harroiv. — Wliere Kentucky 
bluegrass is coming in, or bermuda or other grasses, 
after all the best thing probably to rake them out is 
the spring toothed harrow. One needs a strong har- 
row, not too wide, and weighted well, when if the 
alfalfa is well established and strongly rooted it 
will be relieved of its encumbering grasses without 
being materially harmed itself. Or the spring tooth 
harrow may be used after the disk harrow. 

A Deep Tilling Machine. — The Spalding deep till- 
ing machine is the invention of a Californian and 
was first used there in plowing heavy adobe soils. It 
is essentially a very large and strong disk plow hav- 
ing two 24'^ disks set to run in the one furrow. With 
this plow one can readily plow 12'' to 16'' deep. The 
forward disk throws down the upper surface soil, 
with its trash and weed seeds. The following disk 
throws over this top earth 8" of the subsoil, bring- 
ing up earth free from weed seeds. All the soil 
turned is very efficiently pulverized. In certain soils 



I 



DISKING AND CULTIVATING. 257 

wliere the subsoil is well stored with lime and the top 
soil somewhat lime-hungry this machine will do in- 
calculable good. It is probable that in almost any 
soil meant to. be devoted to alfalfa this machine will 
very greatly increase the yield. It is easy to get a 
stand in the clean earth thrown up from below. The 
deep stirring, the aeration, the reservoir for moisture 
all help make the land fit for alfalfa. To deepen sud- 
denly the plow furrow to 16'' might on many soils be 
injurious to corn, but it could hardly be anything but 
helpful to alfalfa and corn after the alfalfa would 
reap the benefit. 

The three good purposes secured by use of this 
machine are first, the loosening and aeration of the 
soil, next the turning up of a fresh and unexhausted 
supply of carbonate of lime (which would not be 
found in all subsoils), and third, the making of a 
clean seedbed of fresh earth from the subsoil and the 
burying deep down of weed and grass seeds. 



WEEDS AND GRASSES. 

Much ado is made over the fact that in some 
regions weeds and grasses trouble alfalfa. It has 
been proposed to plant it in rows and cultivate it in 
order to subdue these intruders; indeed, this very 
thing is practiced in some regions. In alfalfa grow- 
ing sections little thought is given to the question of 
weeds or grasses in the fields. The alfalfa seems 
able to subdue almost every intruder. There are a 
few exceptions; some weeds persevere in even good 
alfalfa soils. It is true, however, that when the soil 
is made right and a good stand of alfalfa secured 
one need give weeds little thought. It is ten times 
better to spend effort making soil conditions right 
than to spend it in fighting weeds. 

Some Troublesome Weeds. — Some of the weeds 
that trouble in certain sections and not in others are 
crab grass (an annual grass), wild cress, chickweed, 
(an annual that makes most of its growth in winter), 
lamb's quarter, pigweed and ragweed. Crab grass 
and sheep sorrel seem never to trouble alfalfa seri- 
ously when the land is full of carbonate of lime. Not 
that the lime kills the crab grass, but when there is 
lime enough in the land with fertility, the alfalfa is 
so vigorous as to distance and smother the crab 
grass. Cress comes only in winter and usually 
makes no trouble except in fall-sown alfalfa when it 
may injure the first cutting if intended for market. 

(258) 



k 



WEEDS AND GRASSES. 259 

Afterward, if the soil is right, it will not be seen. 
Chickweed is not a serious disturbance to alfalfa and 
when present may be harrowed out with a spike- 
toothed harrow in early spring. Lamb's quarter 
succumbs to mowing, as does pigweed, both being 
annuals. The same is true of ragweed, which totally 
disappears from a field with soil made right and 
sown to alfalfa. Sheep sorrel, that vile pest of oLd 
eastern farms, disappears the instant alfalfa is sown 
among it on land filled with carbonate of lime and 
made rich. So disappears that pest ox-eye daisy; 
nothing is surer to take it out than alfalfa, if the soil 
is made right. Wild carrot is out when alfalfa 
comes, and the Canada thistle retreats, to be seen no 
more. 

The terror of many eastern farms is found in. 
sheep sorrel, wild carrot, daisy and Canada thistles. 
If alfalfa would do no more than to exterminate 
them it would be richly worth while. Very great ef- 
fort is yearly expended in fighting these weeds. If a 
little more effort was put with that already spent, 
and wasted, in unavailing conflict, in the way of put- 
ting the soil right, making it dry, filling it with car- 
bonate of lime, filling it with humus, giving it phos- 
phorus and then alfalfa seed, the battle would be 
won, the weeds exterminated and at no cost at all, as 
the alfalfa alone would far more than repay the 
farmer for all his effort and expense. 

There are other weeds that are exceedingly 
troublesome that alfalfa causes to disappear. The 
bindweed or morning-glory, sometimes called wild 



260 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sweet potato, an exceedingly troublesome pest in 
corn fields in the Middle States, is exterminated al- 
most completely when the land is put into alfalfa. 
So of many other troublesome things that might be 
mentioned. 

Weeds that Kill Alfalfa. — There are weeds, how- 
ever, that get the best of the alfalfa. Quack or 
couch grass is one of these. This grass fills the soil 
with a dense mat of roots, each one a burrowing, 
creeping underground sitem armed with a sharp 
point. Wherever it gets a good foothold it is usual- 
ly too much for the alfalfa and I am unable to out- 
line any good and easy system of destroying it. 
When it first appears upon the farm it should be 
fought and exterminated before it gets much foot- 
hold. It is possible that alfalfa could be sown in the 
fall and so stimulated with phosphorus that it would 
start very vigorously in spring and thus get ahead 
of the grass and smother it out. It is well worth 
experiment at an}^ event. And it may be that by vig- 
orous use of the disk harrow, followed with the 
spring tooth harrow the roots could be so disturbed 
that they would give it up, and the alfalfa yet re- 
main practically unhurt. 

Kentucky blue grass is another grass that is too 
much for alfalfa. It creeps in and thickens up till 
after a time the alfalfa is seriously weakened. It is 
hardly worth while to fight so good a thing as blue 
grass though it can be torn out with a spring-tooth 
harrow. Blue grass does not usually come in before 
three or four years, and by that time it is well to 



WEEDS AND GRASSES. 261 

plow the alfalfa in regular course of rotation any 
way. Later on I will tell of what good may come 
of using blue grass and alfalfa together. 

Plantains are a serious annoyance in alfalfa fields. 
Drain the land where they appear, enrich, and if need 
be lime, re-sow and plantains will be a thing of the 
past. Canada thistles have been mentioned; alfalfa 
is the best known eradicator of these. 

Sweet clover is often mentioned as a weed in al- 
falfa fields. It is usually introduced through the 
presence of sweet clover seeds in the alfalfa seed. 
Often the unfortunate seedsman is blamed for this. 
Sweet clover is not often intentionally added to al- 
falfa seed. Sometimes, in fact, melilotus seed sells 
higher than alfalfa seed. The seeds are nearly ex- 
actly alike; only an expert can tell them apart, and 
no machine in the world would separate them. The 
sweet clover seeds get in when the alfalfa seed is 
harvested, through accidental admixture in the west- 
ern fields, where it quite frequently grows along the 
edges of the fields. A seedsman who is quite care- 
ful to get the best western seed is very likely to sell 
a small amount of sweet clover seed, quite against 
his desire. 

Sweet clover in the alfalfa, however, is not at all a 
serious pest. At first it makes its bravest showing; 
the frequent mowings cause it to disappear and 
being a biennial it is soon gone with no harm done. 

Eussian thistle comes in new seedings of alfalfa 
from western sources. This promptly disappears 
with mowing. Docks in alfalfa will probably persist 



262 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

till they are taken out with the spade, though some- 
times the frequent mowings exterminate them. 
Spearmint disappears with cutting. 

Foxtail grass is really the vilest weed that 
comes in alfalfa in the cornbelt region. It is an an- 
nual grass that comes up each spring or some time 
during the summer. It loves an alfalfa sod. Mow- 
ing it does not destroy it, and it will seed if no more 
than an inch high. Fortunately the se«ds readily 
germinate and one can take advantage of this fact 
to eradicate it practically the year before the alfalfa 
is sown. If he will put the land to corn or some 
other cultivated crop and so carefully cultivate all 
the season that not one head of foxtail grass goes to 
seed, the thing will be eradicated from that field. It 
does not seem to have power to carry seeds over in 
the soil as do so many weeds. They all seem to ger- 
minate in one year if lying in the soil or in contact 
with it, and if the seedlings are destroyed without 
chance of maturing seed again that weed is eradi- 
cated from that field. This has been the experience 
of the writer and his brother on Woodland Farm, 
where a 60-acre field once alive with foxtail grass 
was made clean in one 3^ear except some places along 
the margins where cultivation was not so thorough 
as it should have been. In order to accomplish this, 
however, one must go through the field with the hoe 
at least twice after cultivation has ceased, else there 
will be estrayed plants maturing seed to become cen- 
ters of future infection. 

Yellow trefoil is a small, low-growing clover with 



WEEDS AND GRASSES. 263 

a small yellow bloom. Its botanical name is Medi- 
cago lupulina. It would not be classed as a weed 
only that it is so often used to adulterate alfalfa 
seed. It is a cheaper seed than alfalfa and much 
imported seed is adulterated with this, and some 
unscrupulous seedsmen bring the seed over espe- 
cially for purpose of mixing with alfalfa seed. It 
is a good pasture plant and in Europe is often sown 
with other clovers to make a good bottom for cattle 
to bite. It has no especial value with us, but is in no 
sense dangerous. It is a biennial. 

We have reserved the worst for the last. Dodder 
is the arch enemy of the alfalfa grower. Dodders 
are parasitic plants that begin life from seeds 
dropped on the ground, developing slender, nearly 
leafless twining stalks. These stems wherever they 
touch plants of their liking send out roots that pene- 
trate the host plant and suck its juices. Afterward 
the parasite does not again send roots into the soil, 
but twines from stem to stem of the unfortunate host 
plant until it is tied together in a tangled mass. Ulti- 
mately the host plants are usually destroyed. Dod- 
der has usually bright yellow or orange colored 
stems, nearly leafless, with very small fiowers close 
to the stems and many seeds. There are dodders 
that attack various species of plants, including red 
clover and alfalfa. 

Dodder always starts from seed which is found 
mixed with clover and alfalfa seed. At first there 
will be a very small spot infected at each center 
where a seed dropped; later it will be a spot as big 



264 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

as one's hat, then soon it will be 2' across, and thus 
rapidly it spreads till there is a circle of dodder sur- 
rounding a devastated and dead center, the circle 
rapidly enlarging. Prevention is the best remedy, 
and is easy enough, since by exercising care one can 
buy alfalfa seed free from dodder. The seeds are 
not impossible to separate from alfalfa seeds and 
careful seedsmen do not send out badly infected 
alfalfa seed. It may be possible, however, with the 
best intentioned and most careful of seedsmen that 
an occasional dodder seed will get through. There- 
fore the grower should be on his guard and nip the 
threatened evil in the bud as soon as it is seen. 

Eradication of dodder is easy if it is taken soon 
enough. Eemembering that as it has no root system 
of its own it is only necessary to cut down the alfalfa 
at this spot, cutting close to the ground, leave the 
stufP lie where it grew and as soon as it is thoroughly 
dry place an armful of dry straw on it and set on 
fire. This will usually destroy the thing completely. 
There will not be any loss worth mentioning. The 
fire may kill a few alfalfa plants, but it is probable 
that they will start again from their roots. Under 
no conditions should the infected patches be raked 
and the dodder put in with the hay. This distributes 
seed over the farm, and besides one forgets the exact 
location and size of the patches if they are raked. 

If through buying inferior alfalfa seed one gets 
a field badly infested with dodder he may find it 
best to plow it up, grow a cleaning crop for a year, 
and then re-seed. 



WEEDS AND GRASSES. 265 

It is little less than a crime to cut seed from a 
dodder-infested field and put it on the market. 
While it is true that most of the dodder seed can 
be taken out, yet unfortunately most seedsmen are 
too careless to do this and thus the pest is wide- 
spread and immense damage results. 

There is a clover dodder that operates just as 
does the alfalfa dodder, another one seen on mint, 
and one on flax. I do not think these dodders able 
to grow on other plants than the one species they 
select. 

To avoid dodder get samples of alfalfa seed from 
your dealer and submit them to your experiment 
station, or to the Department of Agriculture for 
examination for dodder. If it is present in any- 
thing more than an infinitesimal amount inform 
your dealer and choose seed from another bin. It 
may not help to choose another seedsman, and then 
again it may. 



ALFALFA DISEASES. 

Mention lias frequently been made to the appear- 
ance of rust on alfalfa leaves. It will appear in 
almost all parts of the humid states after alfalfa has 
grown about 40 days. During hot and humid 
weather it will be worst. On poorly drained soils it 
will be worse than on dry soils. When alfalfa suffers 
lack of inoculation it will be worst of all, and incur- 
able till inoculation has been given. There is no cure 
for the disease unless one can remove the inducing 
causes. If the land is wet, drain it. If it needs in- 
oculation, attend to that. Lack of lime is an inducing 
cause. When the soil is tit rust troubles hardly at 
all. It appears on lower leaves slightly at time when 
the crop should be cut and made into hay. By the 
time rust appears again it will be cutting time again. 
It is worth mention again that too early mowing in- 
duces rust. 

Alfalfa Root Rot. — Alfalfa roots can not endure 
submergence in water in warm weather. If the land 
fills up and stands full of water for a time when the 
sun is hot the alfalfa will die. If it stands not quite 
full, but with the subsoil full the roots will decay at 
the water line. Thus the field will suddenly begin 
to fail and the owner may wonder why. I have had 
fields on Woodland fail in this manner when tiles be- 
came obstructed and rainfall was excessive. I have 
observed similar instances in Louisiana and other 



ALFALFA DISEASES. 267 

states. Tliis is not the true "root rot." It is not 
contagious ; drainage will stop it, but once rotted the 
field had better be plowed, planted to other crops 
or resown. 

The Cotton Root Rot. — This is a most serious 
proposition, fortunately not yet widespread. It is 
found to some extent in Texas, Mexico and some 
other cotton-growing states. When root rot attacks 
cotton the plants die in a circle, ever widening. If 
alfalfa is planted in a field infested with this disease 
the plants die in similar manner, all dying, usually, 
leaving a round spot of dead alfalfa. 

There is no known available remedy. If a field is 
badly infected with root rot it should be plowed and 
devoted to other crops for a time. It is not now 
known how long the land will remain infected. Land 
known to be infected with cotton root rot should not 
be sown to alfalfa. 



SEEDING GRASSES. 

Usually alfalfa grows best to be alone. There is, 
strictly speaking", no other plant that matches it very 
well to be sown with it. Nothing else matures at 
just the same time or makes so many cuttings as 
alfalfa. However, there are places where it is well 
to mix other seeds with it. 

Red Clover and Alfalfa. — In some parts of the 
eastern states red clover is sown with alfalfa, about 
5 lbs. of red clover to 15 lbs. of alfalfa per acre. 
The result is said to be very good. Where the red 
clover is sown there are heavy crops of the mixture 
for one year or more after seeding, then when the 
clover has died out the alfalfa is said to grow with 
more vigor than on adjoining plots where it was 
sown alone. I have seen this mixture in use in 
France and with it some grasses — I think rye grass, 
orchai'd grass and perhaps timothy. Certainly the 
wealth of herbage yielded by this mixed meadow in 
Prance was astounding. It was not intended to re- 
main long, being in a scheme of comparatively short 
rotation. 

It has already been mentioned that alfalfa ought 
at all times to be added to red clover when sown on 
land that may be suspected of having quality enough 
to permit its growth 

Timothy in Alfalfa. — In some instances when al- 
falfa is meant for horse feed it is not a bad plan to 

(268) 



SEEDING GRASSES. 269 

SOW a small admixture of timothy with it. This 
may be done in the fall, not at the same time that 
the alfalfa is sown, but later, in September, when 
the timothy may be lightly harrowed in. Timothy 
takes very readily in alfalfa, if sown the first fall 
or at any later time. When fields are established, 
if there happen to be any thin places where from 
wetness of soil or any other cause the alfalfa does 
not thrive or is not thick enough, timothy inay be 
sown there and will grow well. The first cutting of 
hay will be a mixture of mainly timothy and alfalfa, 
the succeeding cuttings will be nearly pure alfalfa. 
It is astonishing the burden of timothy that will 
result when alfalfa is mixed with it. Eed clover in 
timothy is usually a detriment, since clover is some- 
what dusty for horse feed ; alfalfa and timothy make 
a mixture hard to equal, since the two balance each 
other. 

In cutting this mixture attention should be given 
to compromising times for cutting the first crop. It 
will not do to cut the crop when the alfalfa is per- 
fectly ready, since that will be too early for the 
timothy, nor will it do to wait till the timothy is 
just right, since that will be too late for the alfalfa. 
Timothy cut early is far more nutritious and diges- 
tible, in any case, than when cut, as it usually is, with 
see'd formed. 

Alfalfa and Alsihe Clover. — I have seen marvelous 
fields of mixed alfalfa and alsike clover. This mix- 
ture makes especially good pasture. When alfalfa 
is sown for mowing, or for enduring several years, 



270 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

it is doubtful if this admixture is good, but when 
alsike clover is sown for meadow or pasture it is 
evident that on suitable soils, well drained and sweet, 
alfalfa makes a good ally. A mixture of equal parts 
of seed will give a stand of alsike with a lesser pro- 
portion of alfalfa plants. Or the mixture may be 
in proportion of 2 of alfalfa to 1 of alsike clover, 
which will give a pretty evenly divided meadow. 
Cattle and pigs love to graze on such a field as this. 

Alfalfa and Brome Grass. — Brome grass (Bromus 
inermis) is a good grass for pasture and in some 
places makes pretty good meadow. It is a cold-re- 
sistant, heat-resistant, drouth-resistant grass, very 
vigorous on good soil. It makes a dense growth of 
leaves down close to the earth and the stem or top 
is not very important, being light and feathery. 
Animals like brome grass exceedingly well as a 
pasture grass. The writer knows of no other grass 
so palatable to sheep and cattle. It is probable that 
it is the best pasture grass yet introduced into 
America, where it is adapted to the soil. It likes 
rich land and when grown alone with no clovers in- 
termixed it seems soon to suffer for nitrogen and 
falls off greatly in yield of forage. Wlien mixed 
with alfalfa or red clover it seems to receive fer- 
tilization from association with its sister plant and 
yields very much more heavily. 

Brome grass loves to grow in alfalfa. It is prob- 
ably the best plant to sow with it when the alfalfa 
is to be grazed with cattle or sheep. Alfalfa is not 
always a safe pasture for cattle or sheep when sown 



SEEDING GRASSES. 271 

unmixed with grasses. In some regions it is almost 
deadly in it effects. It causes bloat or hoven. In 
other regions it seems a safe enough pasture. It is 
very noticeable, however, that where it is safe pas- 
turage there is usually found a considerable admix- 
ture of grasses with the alfalfa. Animals grazing 
alfalfa get a superabundance of protein in their diet. 
This makes them long for some grass or other car- 
bonaceous diet. When grasses are mixed with al- 
falfa the animals will eat alternately of each. Thus 
a more healthful ration is compounded by the very 
instincts of the animals. 

In using an alfalfa pasture that had in it a con- 
siderable admixture of brome grass I never had a 
serious case of bloating with either cattle or sheep. 
On other alfalfa pastures with no grass I had more 
or less trouble and some loss from death. Further- 
more, I saw very remarkable results in growth and 
fattening of animals grazing these plants, better 
than I had ever seen on any other pastures in the 
world, considering the areas of land used. 

Brome grass is not broom sedge, as some southern 
readers might infer; it is a grass coming to us from 
eastern Europe. 

Brome grass thickens up fast by underground 
stems or roots, very much as Kentucky bluegrass 
does. A thin stand of it soon becomes a thick stand 
if the soil is fit. It ultimately crowds out alfalfa, 
yet for a few years they grow well together and 
make an immense amount of grazing. All animals 
relish it exceedingly. Even Kentucky bluegrass is 



272 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

untouched if brome grass is available. For that rea- 
son it does not thrive when sown in mixed pastures 
with other grasses. So far as I know there is no 
other grass that animals will eat as readily as they 
will brome grass. 

Seed of brome grass is often seriously adulter- 
ated and of low germinating quality. Fresh seed 
grows well. Seed may be grown in any northern or 
middle state; it seeds right heavily. The usual 
sources of good seed are the Dakotas. Brome grass 
seed ought to be sown in the spring. To get it in 
an alfalfa pasture one can either sow with the alfalfa 
if that is spring sown, or he can harrow the fall sown 
alfalfa in April or earlier and sow the brome seed 
then. If it is a thin stand at first no matter ; it will 
presently thicken up. It must be sown by hand, 
broadcast. Twenty pounds of seed is enough for 
an acre when used as a partner with alfalfa. 

Brome Grass as a Pasture Grass. — After alfalfa 
and brome grass have grown together for some 
years there will remain little else than brome grass. 
Ultimately the yield of forage will be much de- 
creased because of depletion of soil nitrogen. Then 
it may be disked vigorously in the spring and more 
alfalfa seed, or seed of one of the clovers sown in, 
with a liberal application of phosphorus. The re- 
sult will be to quadruple the yield of forage. This 
grass is destined to come into wide use on the better 
soils of the eastern part of the United States. It 
is an efficient soil binder and stops erosion. It is a 
little hard to get out of soils but not especially so. 



SEEDING GRASSES. 273 

The writer and his brother have worked with it for 
more than twelve years with no especial difficulty in 
its eradication when the land was plowed and 
planted to corn and well cultivated. 

Winter Grain in Alfalfa Fields. — J. M. Westgate, 
of the Department of Agriculture, is sponsor for 
the subjoined: 

In the Southwest the mild winters and the occurrence of 
much of the rainfall during the colder months make it possible 
to seed wheat or barley in a stand of alfalfa after the last cutting 
and harvest it at the proper stage for hay the next spring with 
the first cutting of alfalfa. The presence of a crop of small 
grain during the winter months prevents the growth of trouble- 
some weeds, which sometimes almost ruin the first cutting of 
alfalfa. This practice has the further advantage of giving a 
mixed crop of alfalfa and grain hay, which is regarded as superior 
to pure alfalfa, owing to the scarcity in that section of feeds rich 
in carbohydrates or starchy matter. This method is also com- 
mendable when for any reason the stand has become thin, as 
through the action of field mice. The amount of grain to be 
seeded and disked in depends on the thickness of the stand of 
alfalfa. This practice has been followed for many years in cer- 
tain parts of the Southwest, although its value does not appear 
to be recognized to the extent that it apparently deserves. 

Alfalfa and Kentucky Bluegrass. — Kentucky blue- 
grass (Poa pratensis) loves alfalfa exceedingly well. 
When soil is made right for alfalfa, it is just right 
for bluegrass. Both love lime, both love fertile 
soils, both love well-drained soils. Alfalfa also 
fills the land with nitrogen, thus the bluegrass 
crowds in. Usually it is classed as a weed. In a 
meadow devoted only to mowing it is a hindrance, 
though it will make a very heavy cutting of hay at 
the first cutting. The mixture also makes exceed- 
ingly good hay, especially for horses or cows. 

After bluegrass has run into the alfalfa it makes 



274 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

wonderful pasture. Perhaps it does not yield as 

much forage as does the mixture of brome grass 

and alfalfa, but it is a close second, and bluegrass 

is indigenous to a large part of our country. Thus 

it comes in usually of its own accord because of the 

seed latent in the soil. 

Of this mixture Eobert Giltner, of Henry Co., Ky., 

wrote : 

I find that alfalfa thrives well with us when we have used 
enough lime and have sown it on fairly well drained land, made 
fertile. After a few years the bluegrass comes in thick and I do 
not know but we get the most profit from it then. It makes the 
most wonderful pasture that I have ever seen. It is little less 
than marvelous what fat lambs come from these pastures and 
how the calves thrive and the colts grazing on it. After the pas- 
ture has been used about two years it is nearly all blue grass, 
thicker and richer than ever seen before on the land. Then we 
plow it, put it to corn and resow to alfalfa again. 

Some men have exploited alfalfa and bluegrass 
pasture and have made great profit from the use of 
this mixture of plants. It seems especially desirable 
as a cattle pasture. Very great gains from such 
pasture are reported. When it is desired to improve 
an old bluegrass pasture hardly any better plan 
could be suggested than to plow it in fall or winter, 
setting the furrows on edge, harrowing in April and 
sowing to alfalfa. If the land needs lime it should 
be given ; in fact everything that alfalfa, likes should 
be done and the instructions previously given should 
be carefully followed in order to get a good stand. 
The grass will come thinly the first year and thicker 
the next. The yield of forage will be quadrupled 
by the addition of the alfalfa and when ultimately 
the grass has again regained possession of the soil 



SEEDING GRASSES. 275 

it will be much more vigorous and productive than 
before it was plowed. 

This is a most practicable scheme that deserves 
wide application. There is plenty of profit in good 
pasture. England is a land of grass and grazing; 
there is found more profit in grazing than in grain 
growing. The same conditions are rapidly ap- 
proaching in America. Millions of acres of our best 
lands will be laid down in permanent pastures be- 
cause of the failure of the pastures of the West and 
the advancing prices of beef, mutton and horses. 
Then should be remembered that the way to stimu- 
late bluegrass is to associate with it a legume, and 
alfalfa seems the best one for that purpose on the 
best soils. It is very easy to get a stand of alfalfa 
on a bluegrass sod. One can plow, disk, sow the 
seed, harrow and the thing is done, though it will be 
safer to sow some inoculating soil with the seed and 
immensely profitable to sow some phosphorus with 
it as well. 

Lim-e usually helps bluegrass and carbonate of 
lime or unburned ground limestone is the best sort 
of lime to choose when it is to be had. 

Alfalfa and Orchard Grass. — Orchard grass grows 
well with alfalfa and the mixture of the two makes 
much forage and good hay. It is not so palatable 
a grass as brome grass, but is easily established and 
really its forage is better than men believe. When 
using orchard grass pasture animals should not at 
the same time have run of a pasture of a different 
grass; then they will eat the orchard grass very 



276 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

well. The taste of alfalfa gives them more appetite 
for orchard grass too. Orchard grass does not run 
and thicken np as does Kentucky bluegrass and 
brome grass and will not so soon crowd out the 
alfalfa. 

English blue grass (Festuca elaitor) is the tall 
fescue grass growing from 2 to 4 feet high, and is 
a nutritious grass, and animals like it. It mixes 
admirably with alfalfa when it is to be grazed. It 
does not spread rapidly and in fact is not in its 
prime for several years after sowing. It thrives on 
the dry prairie lands of Kansas and Nebraska. It 
may be that there is no better grass for mixing with 
alfalfa than this. It has no bad qualities that the 
writer has seen. 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 

Alfalfa is a desert plant and thrives best when un- 
der desert conditions — dry, clear air, plenty of sun 
and much moisture applied by means of irrigation 
water. All the greatest alfalfa growing regions in the 
world are irrigated countries. The great civilizations 
of the world first grew up in arid regions where men 
must irrigate or perish. It is a curious fact that civil- 
ization, and especially organized communal civiliza- 
tion, did not first spring up in rainy lands, where 
one would think that life would be easiest, but in 
the dry, burning, half-desert lands, such as Persia, 
Babylonia, Egypt, and in our own land in Arizona 
and New Mexico' and Colorado. In these old dry 
lands where men must toil to make dams and canals, 
to distribute water and rescue plants from death by 
thirst, there grew up cities and civilizations per- 
taining to cities ; there stood the farm house of sun- 
dried bricks, alike in Babylon and in Arizona ; there 
stood the communal mass of dwellings, the palaces ; 
there developed written language, priesthood, civic 
conscience, communal spirit and the genius of 
organization that brought to its present-day develop- 
ment has girded the world with steel bands, built 
great cities, canals, railways, steamships and all the 
modern machinery of a complex life of civilization. 
The forest-dwelling man in a land where it rained 
seemed to have things all his own way. He dwelt 

(277) 



278 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

apart from his fellow men, lie learned independence, 
nor ever developed much of the spirit of interde- 
pendence that came with the man living where ir- 
rigation was practiced. 

After all, in the long run, the forest-dweller over- 
threw the civilizations developed by irrigation, and 
now in the marvelous shifting of peoples of these 
frantic days we find Dane and Norwegian, Scot and 
Yankee, all jostling each other in the arid West, 
learning the ancient and honorable art of guiding- 
water over a thirsty land, learning to redeem des- 
erts, to replace sage brush with alfalfa, cactus flow- 
ers with roses ; to make grapes grow where thorns 
were yesterday. 

Fertility of Irrigated Lands. — Irrigated lands 
have all the advantages after all, for they are so 
fertile. Lands where rain falls have been leached 
for centuries of their lime, of their potash, of their 
phosphorus. Desert lands have all their mineral 
wealth yet untouched. No matter if they look gray 
and infertile, just moisten them, sow the seed, and 
watch the miracle unfold. Soon overspreads the 
arid dusty plain a tender green. Little shining 
streams course between furrows, the hard clods melt, 
the earth gives up of its treasures, the green deepens, 
thickens. A meadow has come; it blooms, bees hum, 
butterflies play in the sunlight, humming birds seek 
the nectar of the bloom, along the cool depths of the 
placid canal trees spring up, a little house is soon 
hidden with fruit trees, alfalfa stacks hide the corral, 
the desert is forgotten. 



I 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 279 

Irrigation is the modern miracle of the West and 
Southwest. It has built railways and towns and 
cities and states. And the first thing to follow the 
irrigator's shovel is the alfalfa plant. 

Alfalfa Loves Desert Soils. — Alfalfa loves new 
desert soils. They are not always fertile to the 
touch of wheat or maize or potatoes. Sometimes 
indeed they spurn such things and the poor settler 
would be in sorry plight were it not for alfalfa. 
Nearly all desert soils love alfalfa. After it has 
grown for a time, then will grow grain or beets or 
vines or orchards or any other good things. 

The only desert soils that refuse to grow alfalfa 
are those that have in them too much of a good 
thing, too much alkali — that is, too much of sulphate 
of soda, carbonate of soda and other salts. Even 
these soils can be brought into alfalfa by right man- 
agement. Drainage with tiles laid deep under the 
ground will drain off the excess of alkalies ; some- 
times they can be freed of injurious excess by flood- 
ing over the surface and dissolving and washing 
away the excess of alkalies that have risen to the 
surface by the evaporation of the soil water. 

It is simply marvelous what desert land will do 
after alfalfa has grown on it. The writer has seen 
potatoes grown after alfalfa in the valleys of Utah 
yielding as much as 1,000 bushels per acre. Wheat 
on alfalfa sod in the San Luis valley of Colorado 
has jdelded more than 100 bushels per acre. 

Alfalfa in Arid Agriculture. — Alfalfa is the 
foundation stone of all the agriculture of the arid 



280 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

West. Alfalfa hay feeds the teams, the stock mares 
and foals, the family cow, the calves, pigs, bees, 
poultry. In Utah at one time half the Mormon 
population in certain southern valleys was saved 
from starvation by the use of alfalfa greens in 
early spring, before gardens could be grown, and 
after a season of grasshoppers the year previous. 
The writer can testify that alfalfa greens are good; 
nothing is any better, cooked as one cooks spinach, 
taken when fresh and tender and growing rapidly. 

Starting Alfalfa hy Irrigation. — There are various 
soils in the irrigated sections and each may need a 
somewhat different treatment. Soils ditfer im- 
mensely in their physical character and in their 
slope, and regularity of slope as well. I can not 
here give all that I know should be given to the sub- 
ject of irrigation of alfalfa. Alfalfa should be pre- 
pared for irrigation in such a way that the water 
can be put on in large volume, the more the better, 
so that it will run quickly over the field and then all 
of it drain away. This can be accomplished in one 
way on one soil and with one slope, another way on 
a different soil and on a different slope. 

Irrigation hy Contour Levees. — There are lands in 
California so level and irregular in contour that the 
most practicable system is to flood them all over. 
To do this long dams or levees are built up, running 
along contour or level lines. Each levee is so high 
that when the water is turned in above it fills that 
part of the field till it has backed up lio the foot of 
the UQ^t levee above. Thus it makes a little lake all 



Growing by irrigation. 281 

over the field. When it has soaked for an hour or 
day, according to the soil and the season, the gate is 
opened and all the water not absorbed by the soil is 
rapidly run off to the check below which is filled in 
like manner. After this is soaked well the water 
passes in rotation to the next lower check, or if a 
number 'of them are filled at one time passes again 
into the canal and on down to 'another field at a lower 
level. 

This is the system of irrigation by contours. It is 
not a good system when the land has a strong slope, 
as it is evident that all the levees would have to be 
very high and very close together, thus the field 
would be much cut up and of irregular shape. But 
where there is slight fall, say of 6" to 100' and wTiere 
the land is not of a very smooth surface it is a very 
go^od way. 

Land may be irrigated very rapidly and at slight 
expense and labor when once laid out in contour ter- 
races or checks. One laborer can turn the water, no 
matter how large the volume, into the upper check, 
may watch it until that has soaked long enough, then 
may open the way for the water to flow into the next 
check below. It is the best system when the land is 
infested with ground squirrels or gophers. They 
are all forced to leave their burrows and come out 
where they can be destroyed. 

Ther^ are a few weil-defined principles that ought 
to be borne in mind in laying out land with these 
contours for flooding. The contours should not be 
too far apart, else the dams or levees will need be 



282 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

too high and strong and the water will be ponded too 
long in a check. There ought to be no more than 
about 12'' difference in the levels of the upper and 
lower sides of these contours. The earth for mak- 
ing the levee should all be taken from below it. This 
will avoid making the inequality of the land more 
than it need be. The levees ought to be strong, high, 
at least 6'' higher than ever needed, and better if 12'', 
and of easy slope so that the mower can run over 
each one and thus save what alfalfa may grow 
thereon and at the same time prevent weeds growing. 

There should be large volume of water, so that 
the checks may be rapidly filled. A small stream 
will not serve at all since it will put water on the 
lower parts of the checks long before it will reach 
the upper sides, and thus one part of the field will 
get too much water while the other part will get not 
enough. If only a small stream of water is available 
the land should be prepared for flooding rather than 
for ponding, or preferably be irrigated by the fur- 
row method, if the stream is very small. 

Irrigation by the Furrow Method. — This is 
adapted to certain types of soil that soak well. On 
coarse, sandy or gravelly soils it will not serve, 
since the water sinks and will not penetrate side- 
ways very far. Nor will it serve well in hard clays, 
since there it penetrates too slowly. It is in good, 
loamy soils that the furrow method works best. 
There furrows 6' apart, or even at wider distances, 
will moisten all the land between them. The furrows 
ought to flow nearly in a direct line down the slope, 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 283 

since if they run in a direction across the slope there 
will be danger of their filling and the water fail 
of reaching the points aimed at. The furrow method 
will do more with a small amount of water than any 
other except subirrigation by means of tiles. 

The Flooding System. — The most common way of 
irrigating alfalfa in our West is by flooding. To 
prepare land for this system one puts in ditches on 
contour lineSj the upper one to bring water to the 
field, below another to catch the waste water and 
collect it for the part of the field below. 

The distance apart of these head ditches, as they 
are called, is determined by the nature of the soil, 
slope and the amount of water to be had. Usually if 
they are from 400' to 1,000' apart it will be well, 
with an average distance perhaps of about 500'. 
Much here depends on the nature of the soil. There 
are soils where it is well to have these ditches as 
near as 200' feet or even closer together. Much 
of course depends upon the head available. If there 
is not much head the leading ditches should be closer 
than if there is a flood of water. The ditches while 
following contour lines rather closely ought to have 
enough fall so that the water will flow freely in them. 

Preparing the Land for Flooding. — The contour 
ditch is made first, strong, with a good bank. Be- 
low it a lesser ditch, close up ; this to distribute the 
water. The field should be leveled as well as pos- 
sible. Upon this leveling will depend a lot of the 
later success or failure of the alfalfa. Work in mak- 
ing the land level is work well spent. It should next 



284 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

be plowed deeply and made mellow. It is then laid 
off in furrows parallel to each other and spaced ac- 
cording to the soil from 12'' to 2' or 3' apart. Vari- 
ous implements are in use for opening these furrows. 
It is often done with a common plow, making rather 
shallow furrows as close together as may be neces- 
sary, or a special implement with several large 
shovels affixed to a frame is used; this opens fur- 
rows exactly parallel. A roller with ridges turned 
to fit the furrows sometimes follows these plow 
shovels and makes very smooth, even furrows down 
which water may flow very nicely. 

The reader may wonder why these furrows are 
made if the land is to be flooded. It can not be 
flooded until the alfalfa is well established. 

Sowing Alfalfa on Irrigable Land. — The next 
thing to consider is sowing the seed and getting a 
stand. Here one may as well forget all that he has 
known of alfalfa in the East. None of the condi- 
tions are the same. In the arid regions one need not 
trouble to inoculate ; as a rule inoculation comes of 
itself, we do not know how. He can sow in the early 
spring to good advantage; later the sun is rather 
hot and irrigation more difficult, though if that can 
be effected it is as well to sow late as early. 

Fertilization is unknown, as the desert soils are 
rich already in lime, some of them having in them 
as much as 4 per cent of carbonate of lime, or as 
much as 75 tons to the acre in the top foot of soil 
alone. They are also rich in phosphorus, in potash, 
in nearly everything that alfalfa desires. 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 285 

In hard alkali clays, however, I found it very use- 
ful to mulch the land carefully with a thin layer of 
manure when starting alfalfa. This shades the land 
and prevents the forming of an alkaline crust that 
would destroy the young seedlings. After the al- 
falfa had become strong enough to shade the land it 
grew well with numerous irrigations, needing water 
oftener to keep it thrifty on these clays than on more 
open sandy soils. 

After the land is leveled it is well to soak it thor- 
oughly. This may be done by making temporary 
furrows which need not be so carefully made as the 
permanent ones will be. It may be filled with water 
before it is plowed, and again watered after plowing, 
if it has much dried out. Then give the final level- 
ing and make the last set of permanent furrows. 
These furrows should go straight down the slope. 

The seed should now be sown broadcast. If sown 
at once as soon as the furrows are made it is likely 
that it will need no covering, since the wetting will 
make the earth crumble enough to cover the seeds. 
Or if it is a soil that will not crumble the land may 
be brushed with a brush harrow which will cover 
the seeds deeply enough. 

Next the water is turned in, and here lies all the 
secret of success after all. Can any man tell another 
on paper how to irrigate young alfalfa for the first 
time? If now one can find an old experienced Mor- 
mon irrigator he will find him worth nearly his 
weight in gold. 

The First Irrigation. — The principle of the thing 



286 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

is to turn out a part of the stream in the large cross 
or head ditch, letting it into the lesser ditch below. 
This ditch has been carefully opened into each fur- 
row. Now the water is to be carefully divided, so 
that each furrow will have its share and not a drop 
more. There is needed the least trickling stream in 
each furrow. If too much is turned in the land will 
wash, the seed be carried away, the land spoiled for 
later irrigations. If too little is turned in it will not 
reach through the rows. Thus the lower end of 
the field will make a poor stand. It should be so 
regulated that in about 24 hours water will be 
trickling through each row at the lower end and run- 
ning clear, with no cutting or washing anywhere. In 
some hot countries it is well to leave the water flow 
till the plants are germinated and rooted. In other 
lands to soak well once will suffice to bring the al- 
falfa up, and it will root and grow for some weeks 
with the water already stored in the soil. 

Nurse Crops in Irrigated Regions. — As a rule it 
is better to use no nurse crop when sowing alfalfa 
in the dry country^ I have sown with oats, however, 
and secured a fairly good stand. I have known it to 
be sown with spring wheat with good results. It is 
usually better, however, to sow alone. 

How Often to Irrigate. — Usually once the alfalfa 
is up well it is good to let it get somewhat dry 
before giving the second irrigation. This sends the 
roots down well and to a degree deters the growth 
of weeds. The alfalfa ought never to suffer seri- 
ously for water before it is given, however. 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 287 

The second irrigation is much more easily given 
than the first. More water may be used and there 
will be less danger of washing. The little alfalfa 
plants check the flow of the water and distribute it. 
The land soaks better too. When it needs the third 
irrigation usually a good deal more water may be 
turned in with no danger of wasting. Finally when 
the plants are strong and branched and the crop has 
been once mown off one may turn a young river over 
the field with no harm. 

The practice then is to turn out all in one place a 
strong stream, and let it flow till it has reached the 
cross ditch below, then shutting off the flow at that 
place to open it a little further along the ditch. It is 
allowed to flow in at this point till that strip is 
soaked, when it is again moved farther across the 
field, and so on till all the land is wet. 

These heavy irrigations cause the furrows to level 
up a great deal, so that a field that seemed rough 
and ridged for mowing will be all right after being 
flooded a time or two and one will even wish that 
he had made his furrows deeper and the ridges more 
pronounced if he has not his land well leveled. This 
is the system in almost universal use in our western 
states. 

When to Irrigate. — Alfalfa should never be al- 
lowed to get very dry in winter time. It is well to 
irrigate thoroughly late in the fall, when it will go 
through winter in good condition. Watering it in 
winter will not do any harm if the soil is pervious, 
and any excess of moisture can readily drain away. 



288 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

In fact winter irrigation is often a very good thing. 
It saves water, for one thing, that might otherwise 
be lost for lack of storage, and no one ever heard of 
there being enough water to satisfy all needs in 
summer time. 

Care must be taken, however, not to let the alfalfa 
be flooded in cold weather, which might cover over 
the crowns and freeze into a solid sheet of ice which 
would destroy the plants entirely. In truth in ir- 
rigated regions there is no easier way of destroying 
alfalfa than to let it be flooded in winter and freeze 
solid to the ground. This makes it much easier 
plowing in the spring. 

Alfalfa does not want to be too wet when growth 
starts in spring, since that makes the ground cold 
and retards growth. One or two waterings will 
usually be sufficient before the first crop is cut. 

It is usually well to water alfalfa shortly before 
cutting, as this starts off the second crop promptly 
knd vigorously. In irrigated lands one should get 
the hay oif the land as quickly as he can, since 
growth is usually very prompt and very rapid after 
cutting. One watering when the crop is about half 
grown is usually advisable. Here, of course, one 
must be governed by his soil and water supply, and 
somewhat by climate as well. There are soils that 
respond to double the water that other soils require. 
Loose sandy or gravelly soils will use vast amounts 
of water, and when this can be given the yield may 
be splendid. 

As a rule the yield of hay is nearly proportioned 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 289 

to the amount of water available. A yield of 6 tons 
per acre actually needs 30 inches of water an^ cer- 
tainly there will be some loss by evaporation from 
the surface of the soil and by percolation through 
into the subsoil. The Utah Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station in co-operation with the United States 
Department of Agriculture made numerous tests of 
water used, with varying amounts and varying fre- 
quency of application. Briefly, it was learned that 
frequent applications gave much larger returns than 
infrequent, and that the yield was somewhat directly 
in proportion to the amount used. 

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN IRRIGATING ALFALFA IN UTAH. 



les of water 


Number of 


Yield per acre, 


applied. 


irrigations. 


in tons. 


17.058 


3 


3.125 


17.33 


4 


3.468 


24.97 


4 


5.01T 


25.002 


2 


1.55 


61.465 


12 


6.243 



Penetration of Roots in Irrigated Soils. — Soils in 
the arid regions are quite unlike those of humid 
regions. There is often little difference in physical 
texture or fertility between the surface soil and sub- 
soil. Furthermore they are usually more permeable 
than soils in humid regions ; both water and air can 
enter them readily. Thus alfalfa roots penetrate to 
great depths in such soils. Roots have been traced 
to a depth of 30' and even farther. And all down 
in that soil will be found air, nodules, bacteria; it 
is a vast factory of nitrogen-gathering, wonderwork- 
ing plant life. No wonder the '^desei'ts blossom as 
the rose'' when water is applied to them. 

Gra-ssiny the Bitch Banhs,-— It is a convenience to 



290 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

have ditch banks covered with sod. Tliis prevents 
their washing away from too great heads of water 
and facilitates irrigation. Brome grass is good for 
this purpose, or Kentucky bluegrass. 

Alfalfa Groiuing and Irrigation in Mexico. — The 
following letter from Alf Kessler, once of Utah, 
now of southern Coahuila, Mexico, is interesting as 
showing the progress of alfalfa culture in our sister 
Eepublic : 

When I was very young, in the small seventies, about the first 
things that happened that made an impression on my mind were 
the Chicago fire, the killing of Jim Fisk and the planting and 
growing of alfalfa in Utah (and as everybody knows, Utah was 
the first territory to be successfully reclaimed by irrigation). I 
have been in the thick of the confiict from the beginning to the 
present time, and since I have become grown, have traveled all 
over the principal western country from Kansas City to the 
Pacific, and from northern Alberta to Southern Coahuila, Hex., 
where I am at present engaged in raising alfalfa. I have care- 
fully studied alfalfa conditions wherever I have been and this 
beats them all for raising the weed, as the natives call it. 

First in selecting a locality for raising alfalfa here, be sure 
that you have plenty of water; then pick land that is on the 
order of a nice deep sandy loam with not too much alkali; it 
all hay enough lime; then plow it good and deep, level nicely, 
and be sure it is level to save future trouble, but should have 
a gentle slope, and sow 16 lbs. of seed per acre broadcast with 
machine. This we find sufficient. Then we irrigate in the fur- 
row system. To make these furrows we have what we call a 
drum roller. The drum part is about 36" high, and with two 
plows (Center Busters) 26" apart from center to center, at- 
tached just ahead of the roller. It has also two flanges the 
same distance apart which fit the plow furrow and leaves your 
small drills or ditches 26" apart up and down over the whole 
field. Then we cross-ditch the field and leave these small ditches, 
or irrigation furrows, 600' long and you are ready for the water. 
This takes some patience for the first few irrigations, or until 
the alfalfa is up about 6" high and well started all your trouble 
is at an end. In your first few irrigations be careful and not 
use too much water, in fact, Just as little as will run tUrougU 



GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 



291 



the 600', and it should come out below clear. If muddy, you 
are cutting the land somewhere down the line, and losing some 
of your seed, besides putting the land in bad condition for your 
mowers. The land should be irrigated until it looks black, which 
it will with sub-irrigation from one furrow to another; then 
keep It nice and moist so that the seed will all sprout and come 
up. If old land is used there may be trouble with weeds, which 




IRRIGATING ALFALFA IN MEXICO. 



will have to be mown off, and if this is not sufficient, they will 
have to be pulled out by hand. In irrigating always irrigate 
enough to keep the leaves wide and a beautiful green color. 
Should they look a dusty color and a little pinched, they lack 
water and the alfalfa will soon bud and bloom, perhaps 6" or 
8" high, where if given sufficient water your alfalfa will grow 
at the rate of an inch a day, and be ready to cut when about 
one-fourth or one-half in bloom, about every thirty-five or 



292 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

forty days after the alfalfa gets into the producing stage, A 
mistake may be made and too much water given it. In that 
case it will stop growing, turn yellow and have small brown 
spots on the leaves. Stop irrigating; cut once in eight or ten 
days for two or three times; irrigate quickly and not let the 
water stay on too long and it will come out all right again. 

We have about 400 acres in alfalfa here and it is doing fine 
except where we have dry spells and run short of water. We 
have had some of the leading men of the Republic here to look 
at our work, besides Prof. Alfred Burbank of California and 
others. They all congratulate us on our success, and have no 
fault to find. In curing the hay, we cut it one day, rake and 
cock it the next, then leave it in the field to cure a day or two 
according to the weather. We put it in the stack just a little 
moist and use a little salt, about 10 lbs. per ton. This keeps 
it a nice green color, and it holds its leaves when baling. But 
should the weather be damp or misty, we put it in the stack 
dry. 

These Mexicans all want to irrigate under the contour sys- 
tem, but by so doing they fiood the entire surface of the ground, 
and the sun. is so hot here that the land bakes hard so that the 
young plants cannot come through, or very few of them. Then 
they want to continue ponding the water, which should always 
be avoided, for the hot sun soon makes the water warm enough 
to scald the plants and kill them, or the water stands too long 
and drowns them, and turns the meadow into grass and weeds 
and then they say, the peons, "We don't want alfalfa anyway." 
But people here with energy do want alfalfa, and everything 
else. 

About here this alfalfa will grow 36" in thirty days, and start 
to bloorn nicely if cut at that stage. It can be cut eight or nine 
times a year, but if let stand a little longer or until it gets a 
little more firm it will have more food value, and produce more 
tons of dry hay. By doing this it can be cut easily six times 
a year, and the plants can rest through the months of Decem- 
ber, January and February. In the first instance we cut a little 
over a ton, and the second about two tons per acre, each cut- 
ting. The hay is baled on the ranch. We have an engine and 
steel press, and the hay is sold in Torreon, Monterey and the 
different cities and is usually worth about $40 or $50 per ton 
(silver) by the car load, but recently it brought $75, single ton 
at Filipinas. 



TIME OF GUTTING. 

Alfalfa ought to be cut whenever it needs cutting, 
whether in meadow or pasture. It is the life of al- 
falfa to cut it now and then. It disappears and is re- 
placed by other plants in eastern soils when not cut 
occasionally. In the west this is not so true, yet in 
almost any region alfalfa is healthier and better to 
be cut now and then. 

Time to Cut. — One knows that alfalfa needs cut- 
ting when he sees a cessation of growth, an appear- 
ance of bloom, a dropping off of the lower leaves and 
especially when he notes shooting out near the sur- 
face of the ground small new 'sprouts or buds, as 
though the plant was about to make a new growth. 
As soon as these shoots appear, cut the crop as 
promptly as possible. The earlier it is cut after 
these shoots start the better the hay will be and the 
more nutritious, also the stronger will be the new 
growth. Thus the total amount of forage produced 
by a field of alfalfa is very directly proportioned to 
the promptness with which it is cut after it is ready. 

It has already been pointed out, however, that it 
is dangerous to mow alfalfa too soon. To cut it 
before these basal shoots have started may weaken 
it and in the case of newly-sown alfalfa may also 
destroy it. 

Bloom not a Test,— One can not safely Judge of 



294 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the fitness for mowing by the state of bloom. Usu- 
ally when alfalfa is ready to be cut it will be partly 
in bloom. Sometimes it will be much more ad- 
vanced in blooming than at other times. Some- 
times there will be few blooms showing, and yet a 
pronounced condition of readiness to be mown off. 
Whenever it is ready to make new growth, cut it as 
promptly as you can, regardless of the state of 
bloom. 

It is better, however, to cut it a few days too late 
than a few days too early, that is, better for the al- 
falfa. 

Late Cutting Damaging, — There is another law 
that sometimes collides with this : alfalfa ought nev- 
er to be cut late in the fall anywhere east of the 
Missouri Eiver. It very seriously weakens it to cut 
it late in the fall. There ought always to be left a 
growth of alfalfa at least 12 inches high to serve as 
protection to the crowns. Therefore it is well to 
cease cutting by the first week in September, or 
earlier, according to climatic conditions. It takes 
some nerve to do this at first. One may leave in 
the field a ton of hay to the acre sometimes. He 
will get so much finer alfalfa with so much less 
death of individual plants in it the next year that he 
will be glad however. 

The First Cutting. — Along the 40th parallel one 
can cut alfalfa usually about June 1 and find it in 
prime condition ; sometimes it may be cut a week or 
two earlier, It is e§§eatial to get thi^ first cutting 



TIME OF CUTTING. 295 

off as promtly as possible when once it is ready. 
I. D. O'Donnell, Billings, Mont., is so impressed 
with this truth that he mows down 400 acres at one 
clip when it is time to mow it down for the first 
cutting. As he has little or no rain to trouble him 
he can do this without fear. Once cut down he 
hustles to get it off the field as soon as he can. Thus 
his second crop comes on quickly. 

The Second Cutting. — Supposing the first crop to 
be mown off June 1, the next crop will be ready in 
about 30 to 36 days. When weather conditions are 
good it will be ready in 30 days. Say the second 
crop is taken off July 4, the third crop will be slower 
to mature because of hot and dry weather; it may 
come off in 45 days or by Aug. 20. It is probable, 
however, that if there is a large amount of alfalfa 
to make into hay one will not find it possible to do 
it all as promptly as he would like, so that it will be 
the first of September or a little later when the 
third cutting is taken off. This will not permit a 
safe removal of a fourth cutting. 

No Universal Rule. — No rule of universal appli- 
cation can be laid down. Almost anywhere in Amer- 
ica it can be cut three times. In Ontario it has 
been cut four times, though it is probable that to cut 
it three times would be better. There are situations 
where it will make but two crops, where the altitude 
is high. In the state of Coahuilla, Mexico, where 
I was instrumental in establishing a large alfalfa- 
growing hacienda^ it may be cut eyery 30 days^ dur- 



296 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ing which time if it has had water enough it will 
have grown 36 inches. It may there be cut eight or 
nine times in a year, but even there it is better to cut 
it only about six times in a year, letting it rest during 
the months of December, January and February. In 
that climate on suitable soil tiie yield is about a ton 
to each cutting. 

Let me repeat with all possible emphasis, in re- 
gions v/here alfalfa is not very strong and is apt to 
winterkill, do not cut too late in the fall. Leave al- 
ways a good growth to protect the crowns and to 
catch snow. Do not graze late in the fall. 

Western readers will wonder at this caution. I 
have had 2,000 cattle on a 90 acre alfalfa meadow 
most of the winter, coming and going, and have seen 
no injury in Utah. There the soil was dry, no ice 
formed on alfalfa crowns and alfalfa was markedly 
at home. A similar treatment in Ohio would have 
spelled certain ruin to the alfalfa. 

Keep off the Fields in Winter. — Anywhere east of 
the Missouri River it is very bad practice to go on 
the fields at all in winter with animals or wagons. 
Wherever horses tread or wheels go will be lines 
of dead or dying alfalfa plants. The alfalfa field 
should be a sacred place after October and until 
May, no animal should be permitted to set foot 
within it. No matter just what it is that kills or 
weakens the plants, the truth is so well proved that 
it admits of no argument; so let us emphasize the 
rule never under any avoidable circumstance go 



TIME OF CUTTING. 297 

into an alfalfa field with wagon or animals in late 
fall or winter time. Especially do not let hogs run 
on the alfalfa in winter. 

Winter-killing of Alfalfa. — There are several 
things that destroy alfalfa in winter time. One is 
the freezing of ice over the crowns. If this lies 
close and for some time it will destroy the plants. 
It is more apt to do this if the alfalfa was late 
mown. It is not known just why this ice destroys 
the alfalfa. When snows suddenly melt in Minne- 
sota and Wisconsin, finding the earth hard frozen 
the water can not sink down and so freezes into a 
glare of ice that may destroy the alfalfa. In that 
case it is best to plow, plant to corn or some other 
crop and re-seed. There is no loss in one sense; it 
only interferes with a man's rotation. 

There is another form of winter-killing, that in 
clay soils not well drained when the repeated freez- 
ings and thawings lift the alfalfa roots out of the 
soil. This may happen on very good alfalfa land. 
On Woodland Farm it is a common occurrence for 
a good deal of alfalfa to be lifted the first winter. 
If it goes through that it will be too well rooted to 
be lifted very much the second season. 

The remedy is good drainage, deep plowing, and 
probably subsoiling. These things will take out 
surface water and also let alfalfa roots penetrate 
deep enough to be strong enough to escape this lift- 
ing. 

Spreading with Manure,— Theve is another thing 



298 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

that will help and that is to run the manure spreader 
over the land and cover it lightly with manure. Do 
not bury it too deep, though alfalfa will in the 
spring come up through quite a little litter. This 
mulching should be done in November, though it 
may be done later if it is not done then. This is the 
one permissible intrusion into an alfalfa field, to 
spread lightly over it manure for protection of the 
crowns. When I say lightly I mean a layer thick 
enoug'h to cover the land about so that one can not 
see the earth through the litter. Some men's ideas 
of a light covering are airy in the extreme. This 
manure will do no harm in the hay next season. 
The rain will have washed it clean, it will have lost 
most of its weight and anyway will have settled 
down so close to the earth that the rake will not 
gather very much of it. What is taken up will not 
damage the hay. 



I 



HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST. 

To make alfalfa hay a man needs wide-cut mowers, 
a supply of rakes, forks and men, then unlimited 
faith and hopefulness. Especially is this true in the 
humid East. In the West it is not so much a matter 
of dodging showers as it is of economizing labor. In 
the East it is a struggle to get the hay dry enough, in 
the West a struggle to keep it from getting too dry 
and thus losing its leaves. 

When Ready to Cut. — Before starting the mowers 
the farmer should get down on his knees in the field 
and examine the stage of growth of the plants. It 
is not possible to judge accurately by the state of 
bloom or any other external sign. He must part 
the stems and look down close to the earth to see if 
the little shoots have formed, the shoots that sucker 
out from the bases of the stems and that are to make 
new growth. If these shoots, some call them ''buds,'^ 
have not appeared, then one takes risk of injuring 
his second crop by cutting. He had better as a rule 
wait a few days. It is hard to explain the injury 
that sometimes comes to alfalfa when mown off too 
soon. The succeeding crop may be lessened by half 
or more if the alfalfa is mown off too early. 

Nor can a man delay long after these buds ap- 
pear without injuring his alfalfa. This injury 
comes from two sources: for one thing the stems 
become woody and the leaves are lost; then the 



300 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

slioots if tliey get long will be <3lipped off by the 
mower and tlms growth retarded again. So as soon 
as these basal shoots appear one should begin cut- 
ting. Thus several mowers may be a good thing. 

The keynotes of success in making alfalfa hay in 
the arid West are to mow off promptly when it is 
time to mow; to rake before the hay is dry enough 
to lose its leaves; to let it dry somewhat in the 
windrow and then cock in large cocks, or bunch with 
the rake if labor is too dear or scarce for hand cock- 
ing, and then to hurry it into mow or stack. 

Alfalfa leaves are worth about the same as wheat 
bran, a little more, in truth, and one must struggle 
always to manage so as to save them; therefore the 
early raking, and also careful handling afterward. 

In the arid West one can bale alfalfa hay right 
from the fields if he so desires. This he can seldom 
do in the East. 

Curing for the Moiv. — A simple test of dryness 
will seldom lead a man astray. It is to take a wisp 
of the most moist hay he can find in the windrow or 
cock and twist it hard as one would make a hay 
rope, twisting it nearly to the breaking point. If 
he can see no moisture whatever exude from the 
stems he may put the hay up, no matter if it is 
tough. If any visible moisture exudes he had better 
dry it further else it may mold. 

Making Green or Broiun Hay. — In the West it is 
often possible to cure hay that will come from the 
mow or rick with a lovely green color, as fresh and 



HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST. 301 

green as it liad when growing in the field. This 
color can not often be secured in the East. When 
hay is so dry before put in mow or stack that it does 
not heat nor steam the green color will be preserved. 
In order to have this in its perfection the hay should 
not be cured altogether in the sunlight, nor ever ex- 
posed to dew or rain, but should be cured in part in 
the swath, raked before the leaves crumble, cured 
somewhat in the windrow (side delivery rakes are 
best for this purjDOse) and the curing process fin- 
ished in the cock. 

This green hay has a distinct market value. There 
is a demand for it for horse feed; it has no mold on 
it, has not been heated, is not dusty and is no doubt 
the best that could be found for horses. It is in 
favor among eastern dairymen because they con- 
sider it the real alfalfa. It is really no better for 
cows than the brown alfalfa, but it often outsells it in 
the market. 

For making into alfalfa meal the green alfalfa, is 
far better than the brown, because it looks better in 
the bag and is recognized in the market as being 
the true alfalfa meal. Thus it is made up into cow 
feed and poultry feed by grinding and perhaps mix- 
ing in some other ingredient. 

Also, and this may seem like a jest, green alfalfa 
hay ground into very fine meal has been used to mako 
into bread, sweetcake and muffins for classes of col- 
lege boys. They have eaten of it and declared it good, 
have subsisted upon it and done athletic feats. 



HAYING TOOLS. 

The helps of the western man who makes much 
alfalfa hay are the wide-cut mowers, the side deliv- 
ery and wide two-horse rakes, the sweep rakes that 
gather the hay together and carry it with no handling 
to the stack or mow and the big forks or slings that 
by the aid of derricks or pitchers lift the hay to the 
stack top or put it in the barn with no fork handling 
whatever till it comes to hand of the man in the mow, 
or the stackers on the stack. 

The Side Delivery Rake. — This is a tool not in 
universal use as yet. It has indeed its limitations 
and imperfections. It is slower to gather the hay 
than the wide two-horse sulky rake. It is more com- 
plicated, so more apt to get out of order. It costs 
more. On the other hand it can do many good things 
that the common rake cannot do at all. It can sin- 
gle out and rake the driest hay, and can turn it up 
loosely so that air can penetrate it and yet further 
dry it. It can be used to turn these windrows over 
if need be to dry them further. Hay may be cocked 
after the side delivery rake to good effect, or it may 
be taken up with the hay loader. On the whole, the 
writer does not see how a farmer making much al- 
falfa hay can avoid using each of these machines. 
The side delivery rake when everything is working 
nicely, weather, men and tools; the wide two-horse 

(302) 





SIDE-DELIVERY RAKE (TOP) AND HAY TEDDER (BOTTOM). 




TWO STYLES OF HAY LOADERS, 



HAYING TOOLS. 303 

rake to hurry with when showers are coming and 
much hay needs to go at once into cock, or for 
gleaning the field after the hay has been taken off. 
The side delivery is not a good rake for gleaning. 

The Hay Loader. — Concerning the usefulness of 
the hay loader in the alfalfa field there may easily 
be two or more opinions. It saves labor, sometimes. 
It may crumble and waste the leaves. It may cause 
the hay to be left in such shape that it is ready to 
take every drop of sudden springing showers. This 
is indeed the worst difficulty with the hay loader. 
It cannot take hay up unless left in the swath or 
windrow. It is not practicable to leave hay in the 
swath for it loses its leaves if exposed too long to 
the hot sun. Windrow loaders do not sacrifice so 
many leaves, but the hay is ready to be wet by every 
passing shower. On the other hand if one wishes 
to use ignorant and unskilled labor to put hay on 
wagons he may find the hay loaders an economical 
way to get it there. 

There are various types of hay loaders. For al- 
falfa hay the best have endless aprons or strap car- 
riers to take up the hay. The ones that push it up 
by aid of spiked wooden strips are not very effi- 
cient and knock off many leaves. 

Siueep Rakes. — A better thing in nearly every way 
is the wide sweep rake for gathering the alfalfa to- 
gether and conveying it for short distances to the 
barn or stack. These sweep rakes are operated 
each by one man. He goes afield, gathers his load 



304 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

wliether in swatli, windrow or cock, brings it iin- 
aided to the mow or rick, leaves it there and with- 
out waiting for it to be unloaded goes afield for an- 
other load. Thus one man with a pair of horses 
will bring as much hay to the barn or rick if the 
haul is short as would four men and four horses 
with the hay loader. Furthermore these rakes 
gather the hay with the least possible loss of leaves 
since it is simply lifted up, pushed together and 
carried to the unloading place. 

Hay Sleds. — The eastern farmer may not have 
use for either hay loader or sweep rake, because of 
the small size of his fields. He can use a simple 
hay sled to good advantage. These sleds are best 
made of boards V2' thick of some hard wood if in 
the hard wood country, or they may be of ordinary 
%'' stock boards. A size of 6' wide and 12' long is 
good. Make exactly as you would a barn door. 
Hitch a horse to the front end. It is well always to 
let these sleds rest when not in use with the front 
end supported on a stake about 24'' high. This 
makes it warp or curve a little and thus it draws 
easier. 

On these simple and inexpensive sleds an ac- 
tive man will load an incredible amount of hay in a 
day, and a small horse can easily draw it to the stack 
or barn if the distance is not too great. There it is 
either unloaded by simply pushing it off, or the 
horse stops while the forks lift the hay. 

Lifting to Stack or Moiv. — Getting the hay from 



HAYING TOOLS. 305 

the ground to the top of the stack or mow 
is ever an engineering problem that one must 
study. There are several ways of attacking it. 
One can arrange to take up very large bunches at a 
time and thus economize time. Under this system 
one must use two horses to elevate the hay, his ropes 
and lines wear out rapidly and the men on the stack 
are embarrassed by too m.uch hay all at once. Or he 
may waste time by an inefficient fork and carrier 
that is forever getting out of repair and never takes 
up very much at a time. A happy medium between 
these is desired. 

After some thirty years of haymaking I think that 
to lift drafts of about 500 lbs weight at a haul is 
about right, and I would rather go under that weight 
than over it. This gets the hay up rapidly enough 
and yet the men in the mow can handle it easily. 

There are many forms of efficient derricks for lift- 
ing hay to the rick. We present illustrations of sev- 
eral types and there are others nearly or quite as 
efficient. 

Grapple Forks. — How to lift the hay is one prob- 
lem, how to get hold of it to lift it is another 
quite as important. I like the Jackscn California 
fork for use in the field when stacking This will 
grasp an incredible weight of hay, as much as the 
men care to handle on the stack. It disturbs the 
hay very little and leaves it on the stack in good 
condition. Double harpoon forks do not work so well 
in the field as they do in the barn, There are effi- 



306 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

cient grapple forks made that will take loose hay 
and deposit it nicely on the stack. 

Unloading Hay. — In unloading at the barn the 
problem is rather different, especially if the hay has 
been loaded onto wagons. It is then compacted 
so that forks have good opportunity to get hold of it. 
In barns, too, it is possible to arrange ideal tracks 
for unloading machinery. Grood apparatus cost lit- 
tle more than poor. It is economy to put in the 
best. 

I would always build hay barns in such manner 
that there would be no cross-ties through the middle 
section, thus nothing to make it necessary to lift 
the hay to the peak in order to swing it in to the 
mow. There are carriers made that do not ever lift 
the load higher than will clear the level of the hay in 
the mow when it swings in. It swings in at any height 
desired, thus will put the hay clear into the peak, or 
will swing it in at the level of the mow floor. These 
carriers use either slings or forks. 

Slings. — Slings are arrangements of ropes form- 
ing a sort of large net that is laid in the bottom 
of the load on the wagon rack. Pulley blocks with 
hooks in them are attached rapidly to each end of 
the sling and when it is lifted everything comes up 
clean from the rack. There is nothing swifter, 
cleaner or more efficient than the sling. 

Curiously enough slings are not in common use. 
Perhaps the reason is that commonly men have 
sought to take off .a whole load by putting in several 





AN EFFICIENT HAY SLING, 





TYPES OF UAY FORKS. 



HAYING TOOLS. 807 

slings and lifting them in succession. This scheme 
ought to work well but troubles because men loading 
hay rapidly in the field forget to put their slings in 
at the right time, or else in unloading get hold of the 
wrong slings, getting one of the slings at the front 
end another sling at the rear. Thus each is drawn 
out and no hay lifted. 

I avoid all this trouble by using only one sling, 
that placed in the bottom of the load. It would not 
do of course to attempt to lift a ton or a ton and a 
half of hay with one lift. Therefore the top of the 
load is lifted with forks. Two of these are used at 
the same time, one in each end of the load. As they 
raise they take off a layer of hay over the whole load 
just as a sling would do. A second layer is taken off 
by aid of the forks, and then the rest of the load is 
cleaned up by use of the sling. 

By aid of these slings one can elevate alfalfa hay 
very rapidly. I have repeatedly taken off loads in 
five minutes, which would, if that rate be held, put 
in barn or stack 100 tons in a day. Of course men in 
the mow or on the stack could not care for hay at any 
such rate. 

Care of Machinery. — A good deal of the success 
of any hay unloading madiinery is dependent on 
the care of the apparatus. It pays to use large 
pulleys of the strongest make. It pays to buy the 
best rope. It pays to keep the carriers and pulleys 
well oiled. Nowhere else is intelligence and care 
better worth while than in tb^ looking aft^r hay m. 



308 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

loading machinery. A hitch here and the whole 
work is delayed and often many men made idle. 

The Open Center Hay Barn. — There are several 
advantages of building hay sheds and barns with 
open centers. There is time saved for one thing, 
since the hay is never lifted to the peak of the roof 
till the height of the mow makes it necessary. Then 
the hay never is dropped from a height, thus there 
is not such hard packing of the middles. This pack- 
ing often results in a good deal of spoiled hay, espe- 
cially if it is put away rather moist. It is easier 
on the men in the mow since they can push the hay 
one way or the other as it drops and thus do quite a 
little toward distributing it where needed. 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY 
COUNTRIES. 

Probably most of the readers of this book will 
dwell where showers come during hay harvest. I 
remember what terror filled the hearts of haymakers 
during my childhood, spent in Ohio. It was consid- 
ered a calamity to have hay out when it rained and 
every energy was put forth to get the last forkful 
up before the storm came. Afterward when I began 
the growing of alfalfa it came over me with a feeling 
of dismay that with much alfalfa to harvest it would 
be impossible to avoid getting a lot of it wet. Later 
when my brothers and I liad as much as 100 acres or 
more to harvest I learned that they would have al- 
falfa cut, in swath or in cock, during nearly every 
storm that fell in the entire summer. From observa- 
tion and habit we at last learned the secret of making 
hay with no material damage in a land where rain 
often falls. 

Not Hard to Cure. — Alfalfa is not a hard stuff to 
make into hay. It dries easier than red clover, for 
example. There is a principle to be observed in 
making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from 
all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves 
are not at once burned and dried to powder the 
moisture from the stems is the more easily removed. 
Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are 
not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and 

(30S) 



310 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

some semblance of its natural condition it is most 
efficiently carrying away the sap of the stem, but 
when it has dried up it no longer aids in drying 
the plant at all. Therefore, the best hay in all re- 
spects is made partly in the shade, in loosely turned 
windrows, in narrow cocks. 

Raking the Hay. — This indicates the use of the 
side delivery rake. It is an admirable tool for help- 
ing cure hay. One can lay it up in loose windrows, 
hidden in part from the burning sun, yet penetrable 
by the air and do a good deal of curing there. 

We do not make much use of the tedder. There 
are times when it should be used in very heavy hay, 
when very green and the earth wet underneath. The 
danger with the tedder is that one will use it too late 
and knock off showers of leaves. Careful use of the 
tedder is helpful; indiscriminate use of the tedder 
may do great injury. 

The rake should always be started before the 
leaves are dry enough to crumble. Alfalfa leaves 
are worth about $25 per ton. They are worth as 
much, pound f'or pound, as wheat middlings. One 
must plan to save them. 

There are occasions when unavoidably parts of 
the field will become too dry to rake without losing 
most of its leave-s. Then let it alone till the sun has 
gone down. Almost instantly the leaves will regain 
their elasticity, and one can rake without losing 
them. The writer has done this several times and 
secured beautiful hay with nearly every leaf^ giving 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 8X1 

the man whO' worked so late extra pay for his over- 
time. In raking' such hay, which is of course very 
dry, it is best to make the windrov^^s hirge. 

Usually small windrows are best. We follow 
about this practice: The mowers are run when 
there is leisure to run them, paying little attention 
to time of day. Usually several of them are started 
at one time, when teams can be spared from other 
work. It is well if the dew is off the alfalfa before 
it is mown, but convenience sometimes makes us 
disregard this practice. 

Cocking the Hay. — As soon as the hay is tough 
and the leaves as dry as it is safe to allow them, 
the rakes are started and small windrows made. 
At once men follow with forks and cock the hay up 
in the old fashioned way. Care is taken to make 
the cocks small in diameter, and as high as they can 
be safely piled. The workmen are shown how to 
take the hay in small forkfuls and lay it up, one 
forkful squarely above another, till the cock is made. 
This with a little practice is rapidly done. It seems 
a costly thing to one not accustomed to this sort of 
handling of hay, yet a skillful and energetic man will 
easily cock up ten tons or more in a working day. 
So the added labor cost is hardly more than 20 cents 
per ton from cocking up. And when the hay is later 
taken up it is handled so rapidly that some credit 
must be allowed for that. 

Hay cocked thus green is tough so that the stems 
naturally droop from their own weight. The result 



312 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

is that should rain come that night it would hardly 
penetrate the hay at all. And being yet somewhat 
green and hardly dead as yet rain would not do 
much injury if it did penetrate. 

Loading on- Low TFa^oi^s.— Towards evening it is 
probable that there will be found some hay dry 
enough to go to mow or stack, so a number of wagons 
will be loaded and run into sheds as the last cere- 
mony of the day. 

This last item is of more importance than one 
would at first think. In a showery country it is ex- 
ceedingly useful to have facilities for rapidly as- 
sembling a lot of hay and putting it in shelter as 
night cloises. The Woodland Farm hay wagons are 
assembled with low wheels and broad tires and have 
platforms tightly boarded over, each platform 7' 
wide and 16' long. At each end standards help the 
loaders. On such a low platform wagon it is not at 
all difficult to place two tons of hay, taken from the 
cock, or 3,000 pounds from the windrow. On the 
wagon platform is laid the one sling that goes un- 
derneath the load. If care is taken to have this 
right side up no other mistake can well be made- 
with it. On Woodland Farm seven of these wagons 
are used. Some might suppose this a costly prep- 
aration, but really such a wagon with low broad 
iron wheels and simple running gears, with the plat- 
form built on it, costs only about $40 and may be 
had for less and be nearly as good. The advantage 
of them is that they enable a man to hurry in away 



i 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 313 

from approacliiiig storm or nightfall a lot of hay, 
and this can be all unloaded at leisure next morning 
when dew is on the grass, or it may be showering. 

Opening the Cocks. — The hay in the cock will be 
left unopened till the dew is well off and the outside 
of the cocks well dried, say till 9 or 10 o'clock. 
One can never lay down cast iron rules for 
hay making. The hay in the cock may not 
need opening at all, but the chances are that it 
will if it is to go in at once. Sometimes it can be left 
for a few days in hot, dry weather and it will per- 
fectly cure in the cock. I do not often do this ; it is 
taking too much chance. By 10 o 'clock, if the day is 
fair, men are busily opening the cocks that were laid 
up the evening before. With timothy hay one tears 
it all apart and scatters it as much as possible when 
he opens it. With alfalfa, on the other hand, one lifts 
it tenderly and puts it out in three, four or more 
large flakes, just as the cock was laid up — this to 
avoid loss of leaves. These flakes lying under the 
midday sun soon dry. After dinner maybe they will 
need turning over once. This is very rapidly done. 
Then one man goes along and lays them in cock 
again, just as he would pile up buckwheat cakes. 
This is done very fast indeed, and the hay laid up 
again goes right on drying. Wagons follow and it is 
taken as fast as possible to the barn. Late in the 
day there may be more hay to rake and cock. 

This is the system followed on Woodland Farm, 
and almost no hav is lost no matter how it rains. 



314 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Keep Hay from the Air. — As soon as alfalfa is 
half dry it ought to be kept from the air except in 
dry weather. That is, if it should happen to rain 
and the hay is lying in the swath it will be much 
injured; if it is in windrow it is less hurt, and if in 
cock it will probably be hurt none at all. So keep it 
away from the air as soon as it is getting dry and 
dews or rains are coming. This lesson can not be 
too well learned. Alfalfa once thoroughly dry, then 
wetted, is much more injured than if it is only half 
dry when rain falls. While I am always rejoiced at 
dry weather during alfalfa harvest yet I expect to 
see hay in the field during almost every rainstorm 
of the summer. 

Degree of Dryness. — Our rule is to dry hay as dry 
as we can. How dry is that ? Seldom as dry as we 
would like, certainly. Our test is to take a wisp of 
hay, choosing some of the moister part, and twist it 
hard to see if we can wring any moisture from the 
stems. If we can not we put it in the mow or stack 
as fast as we can get it there. One can put in hay 
with some moisture in the stems but moisture of 
rain or dew is sure to spoil the hay. We learn that 
the larger a body of hay is put in in one place the 
moister it may be and not spoil ; that when only one 
or two tons are put in a small mow together the 
hay can hardly be too well cured when it is put in, 
but that mows with 50 or more tons together will 
keep well even if the hay is pretty tough when put 
in. The heat generated by the hay in curing dries 



i 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 315 

out tlie large mass and no doubt destroys the germs 
of mold as well. 

Broivn Hay. — This heating in the mow destroys 
the green color of alfalfa and makes it brown or 
yellow. It does not therefore appear so attractive 
yet most animals eat it all the more greedily for 
this heating that it has undergone. It has not really 
been injured except that it has lost a little in weight. 
Storer very nicely says of this brown hay : 

Besides the plan of having hay undergo in the making some 
slight fermentation, in connection with the true sweating, there 
is another much more emphatic conception put in practice in 
the process of making brown hay, so called. This is a process 
which is dependent upon decompositions that are a good deal 
more incipient; but which has nevertheless found favor in many 
districts, especially in countries where the weather can never 
be depended upon for making hay by the usual process. 

In making brown hay, most of the water of the grass is 
driven off by the heat of fermentation, only about a third of the 
origin.'il moisture being dried off by sun and air in the first 
place. Par from seeking to bring the hay into contact with the 
air, the chief care in this process is to exclude air from the hay. 
For making brown hay, grass that has been wilted to such an 
extent that the leaves have shriveled, although the stalks are 
still plump, is heaped up either in rather large masses or in 
smaller heaps that have been trodden in such wise that the 
air shall be well-nigh or altogether excluded from the interior 
of the heap. Under these conditions, fermentation soon sets 
in and proceeds with a good degree of regularity. In the course 
of it the heap becomes very hot, often as hot as the temperature 
of boiling water, the hay takes on a deep brown color, and gives 
off an odor of caramel or burnt sugar. 

In point of fact, some of the constituents of the hay undergo 
the well-known fermentation which chemists distinguish as the 
alcoholic, the lactic and the butyric; in other words, a consid- 
erable part of the carbohydrates in the hay, notably the sugar 
and the dextrin, are changed to alcohol, carbonic acid and lactic 
and butyric acids. Of course, a considerable proportion of the 
carbohydrates are destroyed by these changes. The large amount 
of heat that is developed comes from the destruction of these 



316 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tilings. Some persons have thought that enough heat is de- 
veloped to kill the germs of hurtful fungi which may have ex- 
isted upon the grass, and that the hay is thus protected from 
moldiness and from putrefaction. More probably it is the copi- 
ous evolution of carbonic acid during the fermentation and the 
lactic acid formed which hinder the development of the mi- 
crodemes that cause putrefaction. 

Brown hay that has been properly prepared is greedily eaten 
by cattle, and readily digested and utilized by them. Since the 
fermentation destroys a larger proportion of the carbohydrates of 
the grass than of the albuminoids, it follows that brown hay 
must be a somewhat more highly nitrogenized food than ordi- 
nary green hay. 

There is a certain analogy between brown hay and black tea. 
Black tea is made from the same kind of leaves as green tea, 
and the leaves are plucked at the same stage of their growth. 
But for making black tea the leaves are fermented in heaps 
before drying them, while for green tea the leaves are dried 
directly. 

The real justification for making brown hay is that the farmer 
becomes independent of climate, and that even very weedy grass 
may be saved in this way in the worst of seasons. Much labor 
is required, of course, in raking up and carrying the heavy 
green grass. The loss of dry organic matter in making brown 
hay is large. Probably it is never less than 14% or 15% of that 
originally contained in the grass, and the proportion is fre- 
quently much larger than this. 

Management in the Moid. — The hay mow is a hard 
place, espeeially when one is rolling in tough alfalfa 
at the rate of a ton every ten minutes. Therefore 
it needs good men and plenty of them. In order to 
have the hay cure nicely in the mow it ought all to 
be moved, or nearly all. The practice of letting the 
hay pile up in the middle as it falls from the car- 
rier, rolling to each side, is a pernicious one. It 
makes the hay very hard to get out of the mow and 
there will be more mold and damage in the middle 
than there would if the hay was kept level in the 




ALFALFA GOING IXTo TIIH] HAY MOW. 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 317 

mow, or a little liiglier on eacli side than the center. 

There ought to be no beams or ties or anything 
in the mow for hay to rest upon. Where it is held 
up by cross beams some of it may damage. 

Curing Green Alfalfa. — In a small way hay can be 
made by mixing quite moist half-cured hay with 
bright dry straw or last year's hay. I have often 
done this, laying down first a layer of straw, then a 
layer of alfalfa, another layer of straw and thus on 
till the mow is full or the supply of dry material is 
exhausted. Shredded corn fodder is a good ma- 
terial to use in this way and it is notable that when 
the mixed foliage is fed out the animals will eat both 
the alfalfa and the other material mixed with it. 
Perhaps some of the flavor of the alfalfa is im- 
parted to the other material. 

Stacking Out of Doors. — In the West little care 
is taken in building alfalfa ricks. They are often as 
wide as 25' and the tops very flat and poorly adapted 
to shedding off rain. In the East this will not do ; 
the whole stack would become rotten. Alfalfa keeps 
all right in stack or long rick, but there are certain 
tilings to bear in mind. Good foundations should 
be built high enough off the ground so that air cir- 
culates under them freely. They ought to be no 
more than about 16' wide at the base, with a good 
bulge higher up, and built as high as practicable. 
We build them on Woodland Farm 25' high. They 
should not be too hastily finished, as they will settle 
unevenly and it is better to put the top on the 



318 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



second day after building. The tops must be of wild 
hay, timothy or some such material that will shed 
water. Alfalfa alone will not shed water at all well. 




I I 






4' ^ 



«s^ 

M^ 



i^^'^^"^^^' 



MODERN METHOD OP STACKING HAY. 

There are covers made of wnde boards that serve 
well. These boards are held in place by use of spe- 
cially constructed chains in which the boards are 
slipped. The boards ought to have two good coats 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 319 

of paint before being used; a light colored paint is 
best. Canvas stack covers are of use. They de- 
cay rapidly when left on the stacks for a long time. 
Steam arises from the stacks and condensing on the 
canvas covers keeps them constantly moist and 
warm, favoring decay. 

Use of Hay Caps. — Hay caps of stout cotton cloth 
or light canvas are very useful. They may be about 
48'' square and should have weights at each corner. 
A convenient way to make these weights is to make 
them of balls of moist cement. By putting a hole 
as large as a cent piece in the corner of the square 
and squeezing the ball of cement so that it will 
surround the corner of the fabric and pass through 
the hole it will become very firmly attached. If the 
cement is as large as an orange it will do no harm 
and hold on the covers all the more securely if the 
wind blows, which it usually does before rain. 
These weights are far better than cords and pegs 
which get inextricably tangled in handling covers. 

The objection to the covers is the trouble of using 
them, gathering them up again and taking care of 
them. However, where hay is as valuable as it is 
in the Atlantic states I advise their use by all 
means. There is one danger; it may lull the user 
into a feeling of security that will prevent him has- 
tening as he ought. Thus the new growth may 
spring up and be turned white beneath the cocks. 
Hay caps or no hay caps, make it a rule to make hay 
while the sun shines. 



320 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Salting Hay. — An old practice is that of adding 
salt to hay as it goes in the mow with the idea of 
better preserving it and also making it more pala- 
table to the animals. There is something in each be- 
lief. It is not true that enough salt may safely be 
added to keep very wet hay. I have tried this dur- 
ing wet seasons and am now satisfied that if salt 
enough is added to make hay keep, it will not be 
safe hay to feed to animals after it has kept. How- 
ever, when hay is only a little moist there is no 
doubt that adding a portion of salt abstracts some 
moisture and helps its preserving qualities. Ani- 
mals too relish hay better if it is slightly salted, and 
no doubt they thrive better to have their salt mixed 
with their food. As to the amount of salt that 
should be put on the hay, I would not advise more 
than 10 or 12 lbs. to a ton of hay. Hay that has been 
slightly salted is toug'her when taken from the mow 
and loses its leaves less and is therefore better to 
handle and better to bale. 

Do Not Dry Hay Too Much. — Alfalfa hay may be 
dried too much in the field. If this is done it will 
not handle well nor will it pack well in the mow. 
Thus one will not get nearly as much hay into his 
mow as it ought to hold. Perhaps no one can de- 
scribe to another how dry hay ought to be. It takes 
experience to teach this, and one must learn to know 
the feel of it. If the hay is harsh and brittle it is 
too dry. If it is damp and limp it is too moist. If 
any moisture from rain or dew is on it it will spoil. 



HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 321 

Internal moisture from the stems and leaves will not 
do half the harm that dampness of rain or dew will. 

The Siveating of Hay Moivs. — When one puts in a 
mass of alfalfa hay in the right condition it is sure 
to become hot and this heat makes vapor, almost 
steam. This rises and condenses on the top layer of 
hay, making it moist. Thus there may be a little 
moldy hay on the very top of the mow. It is well 
to put on a layer of very dry hay at the last, if this 
is convenient. One need not feel troubled or anxious 
about his hay merely because he finds it sweating 
and some condensed steam on the top layer. 

Spontaneous Combustion in Hay. — Alfalfa hay 
put in with considerable moisture in the stems be- 
comes intensely hot in the mow. It may be only hot 
enough to cure nicely or it may, if put in too green, 
become hot enough to ignite. I once stacked hay in 
October when because of humid weather I could not 
get the hay dry. At length in despair it was put in 
the stack in a very moist condition. A large rick was 
built of it, only half cured. This rick heated to such 
an extent that part of it was charred, some was made 
into excellent silage and, with the exception of a 
very little mold, the rest was excellent brown hay. 
It is notable that ^stock like better this brown hay 
than hay that is dried so that it cures with the 
green color. The fact is the great 'heat developed in 
curing under-dried hay partly cooks it; there is a 
loss in carbohydrates, but the hay is richer than ever 
in protein and no doubt more digestible. 



322 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

This rick of silage -and cliarred hay would have 
burned had we helped it by opening it and admitting 
air at the right time. By leaving it alone it died 
from smothering; there was not oxygen enough in 
the mass to make it burn. There are, however, a 
good many instances of spontaneous combustion oc- 
curring in alfalfa ricks and mows in Kansas where 
the very rank growths are often put up without suffi- 
cient drying. It is notable that in many instances 
recorded the fire breaks out after the farmer be- 
comes alarmed at the hotness of his mow or stack 
and goes to open it out, when it gets air, takes fire 
and burns. It is doubtful if there would often occur 
a case of spontaneous combustion if the barn was 
fairly tight and no air was let in by braces or beams 
running into the mow. The best thing usually 
when one fears spontaneous combustion in mow or 
stack is to watch it and carefully avoid opening it 
or doing anything to let the air into the mass. 

I once put green oat hay into the mow, a great 
many tons of it, and spontaneous combustion set in 
in this mow, and steam filled the lower story for 
days. We kept adding hay above and thought little 
of it. The mass cooled down, but when the hay was 
taken ont there were tons of charred hay that could 
not be handled with the fork. It seems that had we 
dug into the mass we would have lost the barn. 

There is practically no danger of spontaneous 
combustion unless the hay is put in much too green 
and moist. 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 

There is great advantage in soiling cattle rather 
than letting them run on the land and eat at will. 
An acre of land will carry three times as much stock 
if the crop is cut and taken to the animals as it will 
carry if they are allowed to run upon it. When al- 
falfa is the soiling crop an acre will carry about the 
same number of animals that ^ve acres will pasture. 

There are good reasons for this. Animals grazing 
tread down and injure both the soil and the plants. 
Alfalfa is not perfectly adapted to being depastured. 
Grasses are natural pasture plants. They make 
growth from the lower end of the blades. Thus 
when the upper ends are eaten off the new growth 
pushes them on up again. However, even grasses 
are weakened by being eaten too close. Alfalfa grows 
from buds and if these buds are eaten off then no 
growth can take place till new buds have started 
again. Thus it is clearly much more advantageous 
to let the alfalfa mature and cut and carry the for- 
age to the animals than to feed it off by depastur- 
ing. 

Advantages of Soiling. — There are other advan- 
tages in this manner of feeding alfalfa. It seldom 
or never bloats animals when it is cut and taken to 
them, even if fed very green or with the dew on 
it. For some reason, perhaps because when eating 

(323) 



324 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

cut alfalfa they eat the stems as well as the leaves, 
animals rarely bloat on cut alfalfa. I have prac- 
ticed feeding it to steers and ewes and have never 
seen a case where it gave trouble. Certainly no ani- 
mal eating alfalfa either green or dry should ever be 
allowed to get very hungry before getting its feed. 

Further, alfalfa is so rich a feed that no other 
soiling crop that can be mentioned is as good, and 
it is so very easily grown. One can grow as much 
as 25 tons per acre of green alfalfa on any good, 
deep soil, and this forage is richer in elements going 
to make growth and muscle and milk than almost 
any that may be named. 

Tests of Soiling. — The Nebraska Station reports 
that in an experiment conducted there it required 
.71 of an acre to keep a cow for a given time by 
spoiling, while by pasturing it required 3.63 acres. 

In New Jersey Prof. Voorhees said that the first 
cutting of alfalfa yielded nine tons per acre, the 
second 7.73 tons, the third 4.89, fourth 2.75 and fifth 
2.23, or a total yield of 26.60 tons of green forage. 
About 30 to 50 lbs. per day of this green forage will 
be consumed by a cow. At the maximum rate an 
acre of alfalfa would feed 36 cows one day, first cut- 
ting, and to feed that number of cows safely through 
the season from the middle of May until late October 
would take about 40 acres only of alfalfa. Allowing 
something to give good margin, one can feed splen- 
didly 36 cows on 50 acres of alfalfa and have chance 
to make quite a little hay as well from the field. 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 325 

Double System Best. — But this would liardly be 
the most profitable way to use either the cow or the 
alfalfa. A partial system of soiling in connection 
with a good pasture is the better way. Thus if the 
cows were put daily in the stable, or fed in racks, 
with 20 to 25 lbs. of green alfalfa and then given 
access to a good pasture of almost any sort of nutri- 
tious graSiS the results would be much better. For 
making beef I found that when racks are placed in 
the bluegrass pasture and are filled daily or once 
in two or three days with green alfalfa, the cattle 
made splendid growth. When in addition a small 
amount of corn was fed them they made probably 
the most rapid and cheapest gains possible. 

Early Cutting Hurtful. — Alfalfa makes early 
growth for soiling, but it is bad for the plants to be 
mown off too early. In England where alfalfa is 
chiefly used as a soiling crop for horses the alfalfa 
is much weakened where it is cut too early, along the 
top of the field where cutting begins. On Wood- 
land Farm, where alfalfa has often been cut for soil- 
ing sheep, it has been observed that where the cut- 
ting was premature the alfalfa soon became unpro- 
ductive and weeds and grasses came in. 

If therefore it is desired that the field endure 
for a number of years it is well to wait till near the 
time of bloom before beginning to cut, even for soil- 
ing. Or it may be felt to be cheaper to sacrifice a 
little of the field in order to take advantage of the 
first available growth. In this case the strip mown 



326 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

too early may be plowed and resown in late July 
after being cut two or three times. 

Repeating the Mowing. — Once one gets started 
over the field cutting for soiling he ought to manage 
to come around with his second cutting in about 35 
days. This is not very difficult to manage. Suppos- 
ing the normal time for alfalfa harvest to be June 
1, if he begins cutting for soiling on May 15, which 
he very easily can do, and cuts a strip each day till 
June 20, he will not find the crop very woody, and by 
that time his first cutting will be ready to go over 
again and so on in rotation all summer long. 

Soiling for Dairy Coivs. — Doubtless the dairy cow 
relishes green food most of any farm animals, and 
needs it most. There is something about green sap 
that makes milk. Dry that sap and it never is so 
good again. Then dairies are often situated in re- 
gions where feeds are dear. A man keeping cows 
near any of our eastern cities can find immense profit 
in growing alfalfa for feeding green as well as dry. 
There is not a dairyman with a little farm land who 
can not grow alfalfa with splendid profit. He has 
the manure for starting it, he has the market in his 
own animals for the forage. If he can make a living 
at all in the dairy business he can make money, and 
plenty of it, with the aid of alfalfa and soiling. 

Soiling on Pasture. — I have already mentioned a 
system of feeding that combines practicability with 
economy and gives good results, that is the feeding 
of green alfalfa in racks on pasture. These racks 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 327 

should be large, so that they will hold at least a 
day's supply of forage, and they may just as well 
hold enough for two or more days. They ought to 
be on runners so that they can be readily moved by 
attaching a team of horses. Thus the racks need 
not stand in any one spot long enough to kill the 
grass there. And wherever they stand the grass will 
be wonderfully thickened and improved. 

Cows will give more milk and make it cheaper to 
have the run of a grass field in connection with al- 
falfa soiling than when they are soiled on alfalfa 
in the stable. There is also a great economy of labor 
in this practice since there is no manure to handle, 
and if the racks are moved often the spread of fer- 
tility over the grass field will wonderfully improve 
the pasturage. 

In cutting alfalfa for soiling one ought always 
after the first cutting to be governed by the growth 
of the buds or shoots at the base of the stems as al- 
ready directed. Thus the vigor of the plants will 
not be disturbed and the yield will continue un- 
diminished for several years. 

In the San Joaquin Valley, of California, are 
many very great alfalfa ranches and farms. I have 
seen there large dairies fed on green alfalfa and on 
alfalfa silage, it being found better to ensilo the al- 
falfa in order to soften the prickly beards of the 
wild grasses infesting the fields. The more common 
practice throughout the San Joaquin Valley, how- 
ever, is to pasture the alfalfa in summer and feed 



328 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in winter cut alfalfa that has been moistened and 
•sprinkled with barley meal, about four pounds of the 
meal to thirty pounds of alfalfa, or even a less 
amount is often used and fed to steers, dairy cattle, 
and in fact to all sorts of live stock. 

Green Alfalfa in Dairy Rations. — New York has 
made valuable experiments to determine the cost of 
milk from alfalfa and from other sources of succu- 
lent forage. Concerning alfalfa on the Geneva sta- 
tion farm, Bulletin (No. 80), says: 

Alfalfa has grown well on the station farm, although the soil 
is a rather heavy clay. A field of alfalfa of 2.28 acres, sown in 
1890, yielded this season (1894) for the first two cuttings— the 
first during June and the second about August 1 — at the rate 
of 24,500 pounds of green forage per acre. On account of very 
severe drought the third cutting was very light and only part 
of the field was cut for the fourth time. Another field of al- 
falfa of 1.3 acres, sown in 1893, yielded at the rate of 33,800 
pounds of green forage per acre, as the total for four cuttings. 
The last two cuttings were very light on account of severe 
drought. The first two cuttings, from May 11 to 31, and from 
July 9 to 28, yielded at the rate of a little over 12 tons of green 
forage per acre. These fields had been steadily cropped and 
not well manured for some years before sowing to alfalfa, and 
were not in condition to produce heavy crops. 

The importance of feeding leguminous crops has led to many 
inquiries concerning the value of alfalfa as forage for milch 
cows, for the alfalfa is much liked by cattle and other animals 
and contains an unusually large proportion of nitrogenous con- 
stituents. The rapid growth of the plant, which can be cut 
three times during the season, and often four times, makes it 
especially worthy of consideration where soiling methods are 
practiced. 

Then follows an account of very careful and accu- 
rate experiments with cows, feeding various grain 
and hay rations, with green peas and oats, clover, 
corn silage and sugar beets. In every instance the 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 



329 



comparison was in favor of the alfalfa, taking into 
account tlie ease with which it was grown and har- 
vested and the improvement to the soil that follows 
its use. 

The whole bulletin is well worth study, hut I re- 
produce only the general observations : 

These feeding trials here reported, though many of them for 
periods necessarily rather short, were repeated for several sea- 
sons and are the average results from a number of different 
cows, so that the indications which they all give of the value 
of alfalfa can hardly be considered accidental. 

The average of all the analyses made of the fourteen lots of 
alfalfa used in these feeding trials will give an idea of the gen- 
eral composition of alfalfa forage. The average composition of 
three lots of mature corn forage might be considered beside that 
of the alfalfa for comparison as follows: 





Alfalfa forag-e. 


Corn, forag-e. 


Per cent of moisture 


75.10 
2.28 
4.48 
3.53 
6.59 

10.26 
1.29 


71 80 




1.20 


Per cent of protein 


2 27 




1.97 


Per cent of crude fiber 


5 17 




18.46 


Per cent of fats 


1.10 



In determining the cost of milk, for purpose of comparison, 
for each period reported in the preceding tables, the cost of the 
food only VN/^as considered. The manurial values of the foods 
were not taken into account, although under favorable condi- 
tions the net cost to the farm of milk would be much influ- 
enced by the fertilizing values of the foods. The manurial 
values of rations containing alfalfa and of those containing 
highly nitrogenous grain foods would be much greater than of 
most rations, but except where especial attention is given to 
careful handling of manure, only a small proportion of the 
possible amount would be recovered. 

When alfalfa forage was substituted for some other food or 
the amount of alfalfa in the ration increased, there followed, in 
ten instances a decrease in the cost of the milk, in two in- 
stances a very slight increase in cost, and in two instances the 
cost of milk was practically the same. There was an increase 



330 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in the yield of milk in seven instances, a decrease in four in- 
stances of about what might normally be expected to occur 
without change of food, and little change in yield in three in- 
stances. 

When the change was from a ration containing alfalfa to one 
containing less or no alfalfa, there followed an increase in the 
cost of milk in ten instances and there was about the same cost 
once. There was a decrease of the milk yield in nine instances, 
and an increase of the milk yield in two. 

When alfalfa was substituted for other foods in the ration or 
the amount of alfalfa increased there followed a decrease in the 
cost of fat in seven instances and an increase of the cost in six 
instances. There was an increase of the amount of fat in six 
instances, a decrease in five instances, and little change in 
amount twice. 

When the change was from a ration containing alfalfa to one 
containing less or none, there followed an increase in the cost of 
fat in nine instances, a decrease in cost once, and there was 
about the same cost twice. There was an increase of the amount 
of fat in three instances, a decrease in three, and about the same 
amount of fat in five. 

When the change in the ration was to more alfalfa, or to 
alfalfa in place of some other food, there followed a decrease 
in per cent, of fat in milk in six instances, an increase in three, 
and little change in per cent, in four instances. When changed 
from a ration containing alfalfa to one containing less or none, 
there followed an increase in per cent, of fat in six instances and 
a decrease of per cent, in five. 

There has been usually an increase in milk yield accompany- 
ing the use of alfalfa, although there was often at the same 
time a decrease in the per cent of fat. With alfalfa forage, 
rated at the same cost as other forage, there was generally a 
decrease in the cost of milk when the alfalfa was fed, and not 
much change in the cost of the fat produced. 

Corn forage (fully matured), in the results accompanying its 
use, has compared most favorably with alfalfa; but except in 
the form of silage it is only available for a short time in the 
fall before frost. Alfalfa is ready for the first cutting about the 
time of planting corn, and about as early as rye forage can be 
cut. The proportion of constituents also differs so widely be- 
tween alfalfa and corn forage that these plants can not well be 
considered as substitutes for each other, but as supplementary. 
For making rations like those usually fed, coarse fodder and 
grain foods, in general cheaper than those used with corn forage, 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 331 

can' be used with alfalfa. The more highly nitrogenous grains 
and hays fed with corn silage or forage, however, have a much 
higher manurial value, which is often of wide importance. 

The palatability of alfalfa or of corn (maize) is greater than 
of most other forage plants of rapid growth that will yield heavy 
crops. This is a matter of the greatest importance. 

From my own experience I believe that there is 
hardly anywhere a farmer who could not use a small 
field of alfalfa profitably in summer as a soiling 
crop. There are always dry times when grasses 
fail and cows shrink in milk; there are pigs and 
lambs and horses, all of which relish green feed and 
particularly if it is the delicious alfalfa forage. 
It is an insurance against drought and an acre of 
good alfalfa cut and fed green to stock will give as 
much as ten or more of average pasture grasses. 

Alfalfa for Soiling Horses. — In all Europe much 
reliance is placed on fresh-cut green feed for horses 
in summer time. Sometimes it is vetches and rye, 
sometimes grass, sometimes alfalfa. And alfalfa 
or lucerne is the most prized and best relished of all 
the forage plants cultivated over there for feeding 
green to horses. Horses fed a daily ration of green 
stuff keep in far healthier condition than when fed 
on dry hay throughout the summer. With green al- 
falfa available the grain ration may be considerably 
lessened. The alfalfa should not, however, be cut 
for horses till somewhat mature, at least at the stage 
when it would be cut for hay. Working horses may 
go to pasture at night in which case soiling is not 
so necessary. They may have the run of an alfalfa 



832 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

pasture and will do' well on it. However, the same 
truth applies to pasturing horses on alfalfa as ap- 
plied to other animals — an acre cut and fed to them 
will go as far as three or more acres pastured. 

When there are mares, foals and idle horses on 
pasture it is an excellent plan to give them a daily 
ration of green alfalfa as has been suggested for 
the cows. 

Alfalfa for Soiling Sheep. — I was struck by the 
great use made of soiling crops in France. There 
one would sometimes see a large flock, consisting 
may be of 2,000 head, all kept during great part of 
the day in some fine old stone stable or shed, there 
eating green clovers with the bloom on. And a great 
part of these clovers would be alfalfa, mixed no 
doubt somewhat with sainfoin or red clovers. What 
fine, healthy flocks they were! How free from all 
traces of stomach worms ! It made me feel that we 
in America know very little yet about keeping sheep. 

The ruin of American flocks usually is the hateful 
parasite. It gets in its work when sheep are pas- 
tured for successive years on our old bluegrass pas- 
tures. When sheep are soiled on alfalfa, or on al- 
most any cultivated crop for that matter, the para- 
site can not gain entrance and the animal remains 
in health. A healthy sheep is pretty sure to be a fat, 
contented and profitable sheep. The labor of soil- 
ing sheep is the one objection to the practice. It is 
well repaid, however, in most instances, since the re- 
sults are so very good. 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 333 

Method of Soiling. — One ought to liave barns or 
sheds well adapted to the practice and more or less 
dry straw is needed. If he has airy sheds that he 
can drive through with wagon or cart, arranged 
with racks on either side in which he will place his 
green alfalfa or other forage, a flock can be fed in 
very few minutes. A man with mower, rake and 
team would easily feed and care for 1,000 sheep. A 
lesser number would be a little more costly to feed, 
certainly. Wlien one has a flock of pure-bred ewes 
and wishes to grow the best of lambs he had better 
try this soiling system, with a little dry hay and 
grain in addition to what alfalfa, they wish. It is 
a joy to see such lambs as will grow up under such 
a system. It has been often tried on Woodland Farm. 

Keep Sheep from Small Pastures. — It must be 
borne in mind when soiling sheep for prevention of 
parasites that they ought to have no run to grass. 
There should be an absolutely clean lot, with no 
weeds, no grass; then the airy, cool shed, the 
feed racks, the water and salt. If there is a small 
grass lot on which they also run it is certain that 
they will pick up myriads of parasites there and then 
the owner will say in disgust, "Soiling sheep will 
not keep them healthy. ' ' It will keep them in health, 
if they cannot get the parasites from the vegetation 
springing up from where their droppings have been 
deposited at some former time. Lambs kept in 
yards absolutely clean, fed on soiling crops, grain 
and hay, will be as big at six months old as they 



334 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

would at a year given tlie run of pasture infected 
more or less with stomacli worms. 

Sheep Husbandry in the Cornbelt. — How can we 
have a great and successful sheep husbandry in the 
cornbelt I By first building wide sheds, with room 
to drive through easily, and hay storage above. 
Feed the sheep in these sheds during the winter and 
give the run of pastures. There is no danger then, 
with chance to glean corn stalks or what not. In 
April confine ewes and lambs to the sheds, feed 
them green alfalfa and other green crops, with a 
little dry hay. Do this and failure is nearly im- 
possible. Do it in a large enough way, with 500 ewes 
in charge of a good man and it will pay well. If 
you have had stomach worms among your sheep and 
lambs, try for one year keeping them in a cool, airy 
barn basement, with no grass whatever, nor weeds, 
in their small yard (they need no yard at all for that 
matter) and see what splendid lambs you will get. 
Of course there is the fear that the ewes may get too 
fat to breed so treated. This may be overcome by 
taking the ewes from the lambs when the latter are 
weaned and putting them out on rather poor pasture 
for a time, or in some way naturally reducing their 
flesh if they are inclined to be heavy and lifeless. 
Lambs never get too big or fat; growth takes care 
of that. 

Alfalfa for Soiling Swine. — When a rancher I had 
my first experience with soiling swine. I kept a few 
old S0V7S in a log pen and each day cut a few swaths 



I 



SOILING AND PASTURE. 335 

of green alfalfa and threw over to them. With no 
other food during summer the sows and pigs thrived 
quite well. They did not fatten at all, but the sows 
gave milk and the pigs grew. Later in the season 
when corn ripened they were given corn or squashes 
in addition to their alfalfa and then they fattened 
ofp readily. 

When hogs must be kept in pens they should have 
green stuff abundantly supplied. There is prob- 
ably nothing else so good for them as green alfalfa. 
It should not be allowed to get woody. It is probable 
that it is more profitable to cut the alfalfa green 
and feed to the hogs than it is to let them run on 
it when land is worth $100 per acre and alfalfa hay 
commands $10 per ton. Wliere land is cheap and 
hay is cheap and alfalfa is a plant easily established 
it is no doubt better to pasture than to soil. 

Alfalfa for Poultry. — When fowls are confined 
to yards they thrive much better when fed green 
stuff and there is nothing they relish more than 
green alfalfa. It is, moreover, an exceedingly rich 
and well chosen food for them, especially for laying 
hens and growing chicks. It may be fed to them 
whole or cut into very fine bits, when they will con- 
sume nearly all of it. 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 

It may almost be said that alfalfa is unfitted for 
pasturing. Grasses grow by the increase of the 
lower parts of their stems and blades. They there- 
fore do not suffer from being nipped off, as 'they can 
yet push up from below. Alfalfa, on the other hand, 
grows from terminal and lateral buds. If these are 
bitten off, growth must cease until new buds can 
form and growth starts anew. Again, grasses are 
safe pasturage and alfalfa a risky one, because of 
the danger of animals, in their greed, so gorging 
themselves that they sutfer from indigestion and 
consequent bloat. 

Notwithstanding these facts very many farmers 
pasture alfalfa with great profit and almost every 
man growing it will desire to pasture it more or less. 
The brief study of the conditions under which it 
m'ay be most safely pastured will be profitable. 

Care in Pasturing. — For the good of the alfalfa, 
animals must never run on the field when it is 
frozen nor when it is soft and muddy. To tread on 
frozen alfalfa crowns is to destroy them in most 
instances. Tlherefore, as: soon 'as a hard freeze 
comes all stock should be taken away from the al- 
falfa field, and the gates locked. 

Animals must not be permitted to gnaw it too 
close. A small field of alfalfa thrown into a large 

(336) 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 337 

grass pasture will soon be destroyed, without afford- 
ing a great amount of feed, because stock will hardly 
eat any other thing while they can get the alfalfa, 
and it will have no chance to grow at all. It is 
hardly safe for a man to attempt to pasture his 
alfalfa while it is in the experimental stage. He 
should wait until he has established fairly wide 
breadths of it ; then he can set aside portions of it 
for that purpose. 

Pasturing and Moiuing. — A combination of pas- 
turing and mowing off is most economical and 
satisfactory. Divide the area to be pastured into 
three lots. Turn out stock on one, and when they 
have eaten a part of it, turn them to the second en- 
closure and mow off the first, taking away what they 
have left. There are always parts of the pasture 
more palatable than other parts ; animals thus graze 
unevenly; the mower evens it up, and what was 
discarded in summer proves to be acceptable in 
winter. After grazing down the second enclosure 
sufficiently, the animals will be turned to the third 
part, while the mower will finish cutting the second 
lot. Then after a time they will come back to the 
first enclosure, which will be all evenly grown up 
and about at the blooming stage. Managed in this 
way, alfalfa will endure grazing for many years 
without injury, while if allowed to be eaten close in 
spots and not eaten at all in other spots, it soon 
becomes weakened and grass invades it and the 
good stand is lost. 



338 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Banger from Bloat. — There are stages in the 
growth of alfalfa when it is much more apt to bloat 
stock than at other times. Wlien the soil is moist 
and the weather warm and growth rapid, when the 
soil is very rich also, there is induced a very rank 
growth that is quite apt to cause trouble. This 
danger is worst when the alfalfa is young and ten- 
der ; increasing safety comes with advancing matur- 
ity until, when it is thoroughly in bloom, there seems 
little danger to animals accustomed to its use. 

Perhaps there is never absolute safety in pastur- 
ing sheep and cows on alfalfa, yet the writer has for 
many years pastured valuable sheep all summer on 
alfalfa, with a run on grass when they wished; and 
in some years his loss has been so trifling as to 
be not worth considering, while occasionally it has 
been necessary to take the sheep off for a time to 
allow the alfalfa to harden up. In several years' 
experience with cattle he has lost but one, and 
that one from permitting it to graze very im- 
mature alfalfa that had been mown about two weeks 
and that, owing to the nature of the soil, was mak- 
ing a very rank growth. There is never danger with 
pigs so that they are not too hungry when first 
turned on the alfalfa, nor with horses if it is not too 
watery and immature. 

It is, however, an art to accustom animals to eat- 
ing alfalfa in pasture. The plants should have made 
a considerable growth, almost having reached the 
blooming stage, before being turned on. 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 339 

Turn on Full. — The animals, whether sheep, cattle 
or swine, should not be hungry when turned on. 
They should be allowed to fill themselves completely 
with bluegrass, should have a ration of their usual 
grain, if they are eating grain; then at about ten 
o'clock, when they do not care to graze longer, they 
should be introduced to the alfalfa pasture. It is 
well to stay with them until they have eaten what 
they will of the new forage and laid down to digest 
it; there will not be much tendency to bloat, but 
should there be it is well to be on hand. Being 
turned on at this time of day and stage of repletion, 
they will not consume very much alfalfa at first, and 
this is what you desire. Once filled up, the subse- 
quent treatment is charmingly simple : they must 
never again be taken away from the alfalfa, night 
or day, rain or shine ! The philosophy is that treated 
thus they never become hungry and thus take in but 
a little alfalfa forage at a time. 

The usual practice of turning in for fifteen min- 
utes the first day, half an hour the second day, an 
hour the third day and so on, is the worst possible 
to conceive, as it brings the cattle every time hungry 
to the field, and in fifteen minutes they can pack 
an immense amount of alfalfa into their stomachs. 
We have permitted sheep to leave the alfalfa fields 
during the heat of the day and come to the barn 
for shade and water. About ten in the morning, 
earlier during very hot weather, they would do this, 
and then at three or four in the afternoon they would 



340 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

be driven back to the field. Thus they were on al- 
falfa all night and most of the day, and often with 
alfalfa hay in the barn to eat dry while sheltering 
from the sun. 

Advantages of Grazing Alfalfa. — The advantages 
of alfalfa grazing for sheep are great. Grazing 
high they escape all sorts of intestinal para- 
sites that so afflict sheep in America. The deadly 
stomach worm, once a scourge on Woodland Farm, 
has almost completely disappeared since alfalfa pas- 
ture has become our reliance. These parasites find 
their way to the ground from the droppings of the 
ewes; the germs develop there somewhat and per- 
haps by entwining about the moist grass are again 
taken into the stomachs of the flock, this time to dis- 
tress the lambs. Intestinal parasites have very nearly 
ruined the sheep industry of the east. The old pas- 
tures become deadly. Alfalfa pasture has certainly 
been proved to be a remedy. 

In a flock of a hundred ewes with their lambs, it 
has been usual to lose, presumably from alfalfa 
bloat, from one to half a dozen sheep and lambs 
during the summer. From stomach worms it was 
once my experience to lose twenty, and half the 
others to be seriously injured by the presence of the 
insidious scourge. The nodular disease also seems 
held in check by alfalfa pasture, and tape worm is 
unknown in our flock, for no other reason that I can 
see than that of the grazing of alfalfa. Of course, 
when grazing alfalfa one should be careful that the 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 341 

sheep do not infect themselves in other small grassy 
lots where the short, sweet, rich grass may tempt 
them to bite close, for in these places infection 
lodges. 

Curing Alfalfa Bloat. — Very often animals slight- 
ly bloated recover unaided. If, however, there is 
considerable distress the attendant should go at once 
to their aid. With sheep, take a stick about two 
inches in diameter, or a large cob, insert it between 
the jaws, thus keeping the mouth open, raise the head 
and gently press the sides between the knees. This 
will usually result in causing the gas to be belched 
off. A half pint of raw linseed oil, with a teaspoon- 
ful of turpentine added, is a relief, and the same 
mixture in larger doses relieves cattle. Sweet milk 
is said to relieve bloat in sheep. 

Tapping With Trocar. — When it is evident, from 
the extreme tension of the paunch, that this will not 
be enough to save the animal, recourse must be had 
to the trochar. At a point on the left side the walls 
of the paunch and the skin unite in the cow and are 
close to each other in the sheep. Here an insertion 
may be made without causing the animal much pain, 
and a tube put in to allow the gas to escape. Wlien 
pasturing either alfalfa or red clover, a trocar 
should always be at hand, for there is no telling 
\vhen it may be needed. The trocar is better than 
the knife, as it opens a small hole and there is no 
danger of opening one too large; then, when the 
point is withdrawn the tube remains in the open- 



342 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ing, through which the gas escapes. In using any 
improvised tube one must hold to it or it may slip 
completely within the paunch and be lost, perhaps 
to the serious injury of the animal, though the 
writer once lost a piece of cane reed six inches long 
in the paunch of a sheep with no ill effect that he 
could ever discover, but what became of it has 
been always a mystery to him. After using the tro- 
char, one should liberally disinfect the wound with 
turpentine or some carbolic disinfectant. 

Cold Water or Ice, — In cases of bloat there is 
always considerable heat about the paunch, and 
indeed the rapid fermentation must produce an en- 
tirely unnatural heat which if it can be reduced may 
of itself cure the complaint. I learned from a Mor- 
mon ranch woman many years ago that ice heaped 
on the distended back of a bloated cow, with some 
kneading and keeping the head up hill, was a ready 
relief. This occurred when the ranch cows used to 
graze on frosted alfalfa in the fall and ice was at 
hand in the irrigating ditches. I have cured bloated 
ewes by pouring cold water on the region of the 
paunch. 

This much space has been given the subject of 
bloat, not because it is so very dangerous, but be- 
cause when one has a case of it on hand he 
is anxious to know at once what to do. The writer 
has noted that in years when he has had trouble 
from bloat on his alfalfa, his neighbors have had as 
much trouble and more loss from bloat on their red 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 343 

clover, and what is good treatment for one instance 
is for the other. 

Alfalfa Dangerous After Frost. — There is a time 
when succulent alfalfa may be frosted and afterward 
become very indigestible and dangerous to pasture 
off green ; in fact, not the best food when made into 
hay. It is therefore a safe rule to take all stock off 
the alfalfa pastures after a hard frost at once and 
for the rest of the year. It is well to leave a growth 
of twelve inches to catch the snow and protect the 
crown -and the greatly increased yield the next year 
will much more than offset the small loss from not 
eating every bit of the crop in the fall. 

Mixing Grasses With Alfalfa. — Eeference has 
previously been made to the value of grass mixed 
with alfalfa pasture when it is to be grazed, and in 
my experience certain alfalfa fields that have in them 
considerable bluegrass and brome grass have never 
given one case of bloated stock. Alfalfa sown thinly 
is also much less apt to bloat stock. 

Grazing Spring Lambs on Alfalfa. — I have for 
some years made a practice of growing winter 
lambs. All the ewes would not yean early enough 
to get their lambs off on the early markets, so those 
born in March and April would be left to go to pas- 
ture. It has been my practice to put these ewes 
and their lambs on alfalfa pasture about the first of 
May, some years a few days later, and feed the 
lambs ear corn in creeps. These lambs have made 
astonishing growth thus treated, averaging above 



344 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

80 pounds in June, and the ewes without grain have 
fattened while suckling their lambs. Lambs eating 
corn and suckling their mothers have never suffered 
from bloat in my experience. 

Grazing Pigs on Alfalfa. — Alfalfa is the natural 
food for swine. The pregnant sow on alfalfa pas- 
ture generally needs no grain at all, at most but a 
trifle of corn should she be in a thin condition when 
turned to pasture. Pigs born from sows pasturing 
alfalfa are unusually fine and strong. After they 
come the sows need a little more grain than before 
and suckle profusely. The little pigs enjoy the 
sweet, tender herbage and thrive on it, but they too 
should have a daily allowance of grain. This is not 
absolutely necessary, as in Colorado, Western Kan- 
sas and Nebraska many hog ranches are found where 
no grain is produced or fed winter or summer, only 
alfalfa hay dry in winter and alfalfa pasture in sum- 
mer, but the pigs are often sold to farmers in the 
cornbelt to be fattened. It is economy to feed corn 
on alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa alone is too one-sided a 
ration ; it is too rich in protein and too poor in starch 
and fat. It builds the pig long and lean unless corn 
is added, but the amount of corn should be very 
much less than is needed on other pasture. In Kan- 
sas the state agricultural college has found that 
^'at this station, pigs were pastured throughout the 
summer on alfalfa with a light feeding of corn. 
After deducting the probable gain from the corn, the 
gain per acre from the alfalfa pasture was 776 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 345 

pounds of pork. One lot of fattening hogs was fed 
all the corn they would eat, another lot all the grain 
and dry alfalfa hay they would eat. The lot hav- 
ing alfalfa hay made a gain of 868 pounds of pork 
per ton of alfalfa hay." 

Pasture for Horses. — ^There is nothing else so 
good for horses as* alfalfa pasture. Working horses 
keep in good flesh and work well, with a trifle of 
grain added to their daily run on alfalfa ; especially 
is it good for mares and their foals. The mares 
give a great abundance of milk when having alfalfa 
green and the colts make a growth and development 
that is surprising. When visiting the great ranches 
along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in 
California, I was constantly astonished at the size and 
quality of Thoroughbred and standard-bred horses 
and colts running on alfalfa pasture in summer and 
wintering on alfalfa hay. There is such an abun- 
dance of flesh and bone-forming material in alfalfa 
that colts develop naturally and to their utmost 
when fed upon it. No ill results whatever have ever 
been observed by myself from depasturing alfalfa 
by horses, though I would not put them on it too 
early in spring nor when too hungry. 

As a Bee Pasture. — In California, Nevada, Utah 
and Colorado, alfalfa honey is a staple article of 
commerce. I have seen some marvelous things in 
the way of alfalfa-fed bees. At Gov. John Sparks' 
ranch, at Reno, Nev., the bees took possession of the 
space between the weatherboarding and the piaster 



346 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of the dwelling. From this they were dislodged from 
time to time and robbed, at one time yielding near 
a ton of honey. At the Chowchilla ranch, near Mer- 
ced, Cal., bees inhabited a hollow wall of a granary 
and their store yielded 3,000 pounds of honey at one 
time. Stranger still, in the peak of the roof of a 
farm building there hung pendant a mass of comb 
and honey at least tv/elve inches thick and eight 
feet long, hanging down three feet or more. This 
was about to be removed for fear it would fall of its 
own weight. 

In Colorado, the production of honey has fallen 
somewhat in the sheep-feeding district, since alfalfa 
has been cut earlier, before it has come much into 
bloom. This fact of necessary earlier cutting will 
prevent the bees making so much use of alfalfa in 
the east as they do in the pastoral regions of Cali- 
fornia. 

Experiments made by the Kansas experiment sta- 
tion showed that bees were very necessary to the 
development of alf-alfa seed. Whether there may 
not be other insects than the honey-bee that assist 
in this work is a question yet to be definitely de- 
termined. It is certain that alfalfa seed is abun- 
dantly produced only in dry seasons. Possibly in 
dry seasons there is more honey in the blooms and 
therefore more to entice the bees. 

Alfalfa for Cattle Grazing. — Eeference has been 
made already to the practices of ranchmen in Cali- 
fornia where it is not uncommon to see thousands 



AS A PASTURE PLANT. 347 

of cattle grazing on rich alfalfa pastures. There is 
little bloat among these cattle, partly because of the 
presence of annual grasses in the alfalfa and partly 
because of the system of management. It is a cus- 
tom with these ranchmen when bringing hungry cat- 
tle to an alfalfa field to mow down a block of about 
40 acres, turning the cattle in as soon as it has wilted 
somewhat. When once the cattle are stuffed full of 
the half-dry alfalfa hay they are permitted to begin 
eating the green stuff, and will, it is said, eat al- 
ternately of the green and the dry. Or sometimes 
they are turned in a field that has been all mown 
down and eat of the dry till the green comes up 
throug'h, when they eat of whichever they choose. 
The losses of Henry Miller, who annually pastures 
many thousands of cattle on alfalfa, are reported 
to be less than 1% from all causes, bloat included. 

The danger of bloat increases according to region. 
There are places where cattle bloat badly, other 
places where there is little if any bloat from feeding 
off green alfalfa. The reason for this is not under- 
stood. It is certain that pastures containing a mix- 
ture of alfalfa and grass are much less dangerous 
than those composed of pure alfalfa. 



ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 

It is in South America that alfalfa grazing has 
reached its greatest development. From the special 
report of Frank W. Bicknell to the United States 
Department of Agriculture in 1904 and from letters 
I summarize the following information : 

Alfalfa has redeemed to profitable use millions of acres of 
Argentine land that would otherwise be unproductive. Alfalfa 
sends the Argentine steer to market a year younger than when 
the native grasses were relied upon exclusively. In many parts 
of the country, especially in the north, it has made money for the 
small colonists or farmers who have cut it and sold it for export 
or for domestic use. Cattle raisers have learned its value in a 
dry cold winter when the pastures have failed, and but for the 
alfalfa hay, put up by the provident against such an emergency, 
hundreds of thousands of cattle would starve, 

It is the ambition of nearly every ranchman or estanciero to 
get as much of his place into alfalfa as possible, and the area 
of pasture is increasing enormously every year. As soon as a 
brief experiment demonstrates the adaptability of a new region to 
alfalfa there is a grand rush to get in and land jumps up incred- 
ibly in value. Thousands of acres often change hands several 
times in a year v/ith valuations doubling at each exchange. 

John Benitz went to Argentina from California 35 years ago 
and with his brothers has been successful with alfalfa and cattle. 
On their home ranch La California, about 70 miles northwest of 
the city of Rosario, they were the pioneers in the planting of 
alfalfa. He now (1904) is working about 60,000 acres of alfalfa 
in southern Cordoba. He says: "You can buy a league (6,672 
acres) of virgin land for $11,000 or $1.65 per acre, and by spend- 
ing as much more in putting it in alfalfa have a ranch that 
will carry 3,000 cattle and keep them practically fat all the year 
round, with very little risk from drought or severe winters." 

The seasons are reversed in Argentine, so that 
sowing in the fall they sow in March or April usually. 
Sometimes it is sown later with some cereal, usually 

(348) 



ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 349 

barley, wheat or flax, sometimes with maize, uncul- 
tivated. The fall seeding (March or April) is best 
when a seedbed can be prepared, but Argentine sum- 
mers are dry and hot and it is difficult to get large 
areas in good condition before rains fall. Therefore 
much alfalfa is not sown till June or July (midwinter 
with them) when rains have come and it is sown with 
wheat or some other cereal. It requires more seed 
when the nurse crop is used. 

This seeding with wheat seems so successful that 
it is worth experiment in our Southern states, where 
a similar proceeding might result as well if the soil 
were made rich and filled with lime, both of which 
conditions prevail in Argentina. Of this practice 
in Argentina an Englishman, Mr. Glyne Williams, 
who ranches about 300 miles south of Buenos Aires, 
wrote in May, 1903 : 

Last year I harvested 30 bushels of wheat to the acre on a 
piece where this year I have very good alfalfa. * * * The 
advantages of sowing with wheat are obvious in the saving of 
another plowing, and, far more than this, in the saving of 
time. * * * Until I see more decided advantages than I 
do at present in favor of sowing alone I intend to continue 
sowing with wheat, so long as the latter remains a paying crop. 
As far as my experience goes there is no objection to grazing 
alfalfa with cattle while it is young. To do so with sheep 
and eat it bare would, I think, be dangerous as they crop it too 
closely. 

John Benitz, already quoted, thus records his ex- 
perience : 

I have had the best results by breaking up virgin camp in 
the fall or spring and at once cross disking, harrowing and sovv- 
ing with alfalfa alone and covering it with a lighter harrow. 
Alfalfa so sown can be stocked with cattle two or three months 



350 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

after sowing, fed down close and tramped. Then the stock should 
be taken off for a few months and the alfalfa will grow splen- 
didly. If alfalfa and wheat are sown together cattle can not be 
put on till a year after, but if sown alone cattle can be put on 
permanently when it is six months old. 

The opinion seems general in Argentina that more 
or less feeding is good for alfalfa when it is }^oung, 
certainly by the time that it is five, or six months 
old as the tramping is beneficial, and the plants 
should not seed the first year. Sometimes it is grazed 
with sheep, a shepherd keeping them moving so that 
it will not be grazed too closely. They do a good 
job of weed eradication and also tramp the land well. 
In the spring it is not possible to put on stock 
enough to keep the alfalfa down because it grows so 
fast and the arrangements for watering the cattle 
are not sufficient for the numbers that would be re- 
quired. Mr. Williams, already quoted, had at one 
time two head of cattle to the acre and was at the 
same time cutting some for hay from the same field. 
Later in the season when the weather became very 
dry the alfalfa would keep fewer, or no animals for a 
time, then recourse would be had to stacks. 

Seeding in Argentina. — From 9 to 35 lbs. of seed 
per acre are used, usually from 11 to 18 lbs. Seed 
is harvested plentifully in many parts of Argentina. 
In some places the alfalfa is allowed to re-seed itself. 
The usual price is from $3.50 to $8.00 per bushel 
(60 lbs.). 

Life of Argentina Alfalfa, — It is said that in some 
parts of Argentina alfalfa will endure for 25 years 



ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 351 

wlien mown. On the other hand, close feeding and 
hard seasons will destroy its value in about three or 
four years. Native grasses come up in it and ulti- 
mately weaken it. In some colonies, notable upper 
Santa Fe, it is more permanent. There at the Jewish 
colony there are fields 15 years old yet in fine con- 
dition. The climate there is hot, with dry summers. 

It is a curious commentary on the absurd rela- 
tion between what the farmer gets and the consumer 
pays that in Buenos Aires alfalfa hay retails at 
about $10 to $15 per ton, the freight, baling, haul- 
ing and commissions absorbing the difference be- 
tween that and the $2.40 that the rancher receives. 

Corn also is being increasingly grown and fed in 
Argentine. The beef is all killed and frozen there, 
exported then mostly to England. Good steers are 
worth around $30 to $60 each. Feeders, about two 
years old, are bought for from $8 to $12 per head, 
very thin in flesh, and placed on alfalfa pasture for 
six to ten months or sometimes a little longer. 

Cattle Carrying Capacity. — Alfalfa never does 
less than double the capacity of pastures however 
rich they may be. Often it multiplies the capacity 
of 'the pasture from three to six times. In some 
parts 3,000 cattle are being fattened on one league 
(6,672 acres) of land, and another thousand or more 
might be added if breeding cattle were carried. Once 
these camps would carry only about 800 cattle to the 
league. 

It is found impossible to cut as much alfalfa as 



352 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ought to be cut because of the immensity of the 
fields and the deartli of labor. It is best there, as 
elsewhere, to mow and stack the surplus, letting 
the new growth come up strong and fresh. 

If there is any difficulty in pasturing alfalfa in 
Argentina arising from its liability to bloat animals 
I have been unable to discover any mention of it in 
reports from that country. It is probable that there 
is some loss when hungry cattle are suddenly turned 
to rank alfalfa. Being constantly on it, and having 
access to native grasses more or less mixed with the 
alfalfa the loss is probably very slight. 

Finishing Cattle on Alfalfa. — The carrying capa- 
city of alfalfa pasture in Argentina is estimated at 
from 2 to 4y2 animals per square (4.17 acres) the 
year round, or in round numbers from % to 1 ani- 
mal per acre. An animal there always means a beef 
animal, and it is estimated that a pasture will carry 
four times as many sheep as it will cattle. This 
is a curious estimate as it is usual to estimate 8 
sheep to one steer. This estimate is for breeding 
cattle. For fattening it must be reduced slightly. 
Except in the winter alfalfa pasture will fatten three 
to five rough animals per square, in ^ve to ei^ht 
months. Eough, thin work oxen are fattened in 
that time. There is a large business of raising feed- 
ers on poorer lands north or south on native grasses 
and driving tliem in great herds to the alfalfa fields 
to be fattened. As the beasts approach within a 
few months of the age at which they should start 



ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 353 

for market they are shifted about from one pasture 
to another and are given the best on the place. At 
other times they are not moved much but are left in 
one large pasture sufficient for their needs for a 
year. 

In the summer much alfalfa is allowed to go to 
waste because it is not always practicable to put 
on enough cattle to eat it all, as there would not be 
feed enough in the winter. Some cutting of pastured 
alfalfa is often done. After the first spring growth 
has been eaten down the cattle are taken away for 
a few weeks, and hay is put up, with a temporary 
fence around the stacks. In winter when feed gets 
short these fences are often taken away and cattle 
allowed to help themselves, though some ranchmen 
practice a less wasteful method of feeding. 

These ranchmen have learned by e:^perience that 
the alfalfa will be better in the winter and will live 
longer if it is not eaten down closely in the summer 
but is allowed to grow to its full height. 

The following estimate of cost of making alfalfa 
hay in Argentina gives clue to labor conditions and 
wages down there. The estimate is from the Jewish 
colony at Mosesville, 100 miles northwest of the city 
of Santa Fe: 

Price in stack, per ton $2.40 

Cost of mowing- with machine $0.36 

Raking-, g-athering, stacking: 0.71 

Total cost of making hay $1.07 

Net profit per ton $1.33 



ALFALFA FOR THE SILO. 

The question is often asked: ''What of alfalfa 
silage?" The answer is that it makes good silage, il 
it is put into the silo in the right condition, and the 
silo is a good one. It is not always wise to make 
silage of alfalfa rather than hay. Corn makes good 
silage. Corn is easily grown on alfalfa sod. Corn is 
needed to balance alfalfa. Corn is somewhat cheaper 
to handle and put into the silo, perhaps, although 
there are conflicting opinions here. Alfalfa is easily 
cured in most countries, and where corn silage is fed 
there is need of dry alfalfa hay. So as a rule I ad- 
vise that alfalfa be made into hay and corn (maize) 
made into silage. We do not know all about alfalfa 
silage yet. I have made it, accidentally, in the stack, 
and can testify that the cattle relished it. I have 
seen it made in California, where it was desired be- 
cause the fermentation softened the barbs on the ac- 
companying foxtail grass, and I have seen more or 
less of it in various sections. 

Conditions of Silage Making. — The present state 
of information seems to be that alfalfa should be in 
full bloom before being cut for silage. Immature 
alfalfa is liable to become acid and have disagree- 
able odor and taste. It should get fairly mature 
and be cut with the dew on and raked and hurried 
to the silo. The first crop is best. It ought to be 

(354) 



ALFALFA FOR THE SILO. 355 

cut in short lengths as it packs better and keeps 
better. It is good food for cows, calves and pigs. 
It is by some especially recommended for pigs. 

Steam Cured Silage. — Perfect silage could prob- 
ably be made from alfalfa by the steam curing pro- 
cess. This consists of filling the silo and imme- 
diately turning into the center 'of the mass, low 
down, a volume of steam. Steam continues to enter 
until all the silage clear to the top is of a tempera- 
ture of about 212°. In making silage by this opera- 
tion the bottom of the silo should not be concrete 
as much moisture will come from the condensing 
steam. 

Silage in Rainy Regions. — Men have reported cut- 
ting alfalfa while rain was falling, raking and put- 
ting it directly into the silo with good results. The 
chief hope of the silo for alfalfa is for regions where 
there is excessive rainfall at time when the first crop 
should be cut. In Louisiana and Mis'sissippi one 
finds these conditions. 

In passing it may be mentioned that in silo build- 
ing only good silos are worth considering. Those 
of concrete are cheapest in the long run, and silos of 
thin concrete walls, well reinforced with steel, then 
coated on the inside with pitch or black asphaltum 
paint till they have a glossy surface, keep silage ex- 
ceedingly well. 



BALING ALFALFA HAY. 

A few men report success in baling alfalfa right 
from the windrow or cock in the field, then piling 
it loosely in such manner that air circulates freely 
between the bales. Most experiments with baling 
alfalfa hay from the field have been unsuccessful. 

To cure the hay in the field as well as one can, then 
to stack or put in the mow for a month, or till it has 
gone safely through its sweat, is the only sure way 
of getting hay ready for the baler. 

Where a little salt has been used, say 10 lbs. to a 
ton of hay, the leaves will hold on a little better dur- 
ing the baling process. 

Air Circulation, — There is a new machine making 
a round bale with a hole through it lengthwise. This 
baler is meant for use in the field. It is claimed that 
with this bale there is less mold than with the square 
bale. I hope the claim may prove well founded. 
Dealers prefer small bales of alfalfa. 

In storing baled hay set the bales on edge, as 
brick are set up, and allow some space between bales 
so that air can penetrate. Never lay bales on the 
ground ; have a circulation of air always under them 
and around them. It is said to be much better in 
loading cars to set the bales up edgeways, not to 
lay them flat, ^nd that there will be l^ss mold m 
treated. 

(356) 



BALING ALFALFA HAY. 357 

Hay Dealers' Classifications. — The National Hay- 
Association adopted in 1905 the following classifica- 
tion for alfalfa hay : 

Choice Alfalfa — Shall be reasonably fine, leafy 
alfalfa, of bright green color, properly cnred, sound, 
sweet and well baled. 

No. 1 Alfalfa — Shall be coarse alfalfa of bright 
green color, or reasonably fine, leafy, of good color, 
and may contain five per cent of foreign grasses; 
mnst be well baled, sound and sweet. 

No. 2 Alfalfa — Shall include alfalfa somewhat 
bleached, but of fair color, reasonably leafy, not 
more than one-eighth foreign grasses; must be 
sound and well baled. 

No. 3 Alfalfa — Shall include bleached alfalfa, or 
alfalfa mixed with not to exceed one-fourth foreign 
grasses, but when mixed must be of fair color, sound 
and well baled. 

No-Grade Alfalfa — Shall include all alfalfa not 
good enough for other grades, caked, musty, grassy 
or threshed. 



FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 

Alfalfa has high feeding value. This arises from 
its digestibility and its composition. Alfalfa is rich 
in digestible protein. Protein is the substance in 
foods that goes to build red flesh and blood, to make 
nerve and brain. There is much bone-making ma- 
terial in alfalfa also. Thus alfalfa is a builder of 
tissue, of muscle, bone, nerve, brain. It is a food 
rich in nitrogen, the prime component of protein. 
It is because of its alliance with the bacteria that 
it is able to store itself so full of this nitrogen. We 
have no other forage so good, so rich in protein. 
And protein in foods is what. costs. Carbon is cheap 
enough. We get carbon, the heat-maker, the stuff 
that makes fat, in corn (maize), in most sorts of hay, 
in alfalfa also, as it has nearly enough of carbon 
or carbohydrates to make it a balanced ration in 
itself. 

Protein the Costly Food Element. — Protein we 
must have. Especially do we need it when we are 
growing any sort of young animals or making milk 
or farming for eggs. One can not possibly get 
growth or milk without protein in abundant supply 
in the ration. If he is dependent on corn for his 
chief food supply he must buy his protein. A great 
many farmers and dairymen are buying theirs. 
They buy wheat bran, about a§ rich in protein m 

(358) 



FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 359 

alfalfa, linseed oil meal, quite a little richer than al- 
falfa in protein, or cottonseed meal, richest of all, 
but a dangerous feed in unskillful hands. Thus they 
compound rations that give them good results, but 
the cost eats up the profit. 

Substitute for Bran. — Wheat bran has increased 
in cost by leaps and bounds. I once bought it for 
$8 per ton. I then fed lambs on timothy hay and 
shredded corn stover, with corn (maize) for grain 
food. With the aid of the purchased bran, supply- 
ing the protein lacking in the other food, I made 
good lambs. It was a profitable business. Then other 
feeders found out that bran was good for lambs, 
the price went up, steadily higher and higher. Had 
not I found that I could substitute alfalfa hay for 
w'heat bran and get just as good lambs I would have 
quit the business or gone bankrupt. Thousands of 
feeders and dairymen are on the ragged edge of 
bankruptcy today because of their large feed bills 
for purchased protein. At present wheat bran is 
worth about $25 to $30, almost anywhere that it is 
fed. 

A ton of it is only better than a ton of alfalfa 
hay because of its being more easily eaten; there is 
the same nutriment in the alfalfa hay, very nearly. 

Need of Protein. — Young animals almost "starve 
for protein very often, especially where corn is 
cheap. I have many times seen pigs in the feedlot 
after cattle, having more corn than they could con- 
sumcj fat^ round^ yet dwarfed, half-starved, Their 



360 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

bodies could not grow, they could only fatten. There 
was not enough protein in the corn to build their 
frames right. To feed them more carbohydrates 
or fat-making material without first building their 
frames was sheer waste. There is wealth of ma- 
terial in the form of carbohydrates or fat-making, 
heat-making elements. What nearly all farms and 
feedlots are short of is the element of protein. 
With it in abundant supply all goes well. Pregnant 
animals deliver strong young, they have plenty of 
milk, the young grow off fast and thrifty, good form 
is soon grown, abundant life and spirits are seen in 
the animals, fat is laid on well, the health of the 
animals is good and if the fortunate owner does not 
make money it is because of some other factor of 
trouble entering not chargeable to the feed elements. 
Bread from Alfalfa Meal. — I have already told 
how once when a boy I chewed alfalfa hay and found 
it good. It was my first hint as to the richness 
of alfalfa as a feed. I have no idea that in my day 
men will make bread of it, yet the experiments of 
some Nebraska college boys is interesting, and I here- 
with present them, as related in a daily paper : 

When Nebuchadnezzar went out in the fields many thousands 
of years ago and ate the grass Uke an ox the people of those 
ancient days regarded him as insane. But like many other great 
men the Babylonian King was ahead of his time, for were he 
living in Omaha today he would be hailed with joy by the 
members of the Creighton Alfalfa Club. The young men of this 
organization are eating hay and getting fat on it. 

Farm experts have proved that alfalfa contains several times 
as much nutriment as clover, and is the best forage for cattle. 
That It was also a food for man was never realizea until ex- 



FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 361 

periments were made at Creighton University, the leading Cath- 
olic school in the west. That alfalfa as a food has passed the 
joking stage is shown by the fact that more than a score of 
students have formed a club to demonstrate its value to the 
world. More than that, the housewives of Omaha have started 
to use it in preparing meals. Its enthusiasts say alfalfa will 
revolutionize the food question, and that it will solve the serious 
problem of supplying the world with flour a few decades hence. 

The alfalfa is carefully selected, and the bright and tender 
leaves and a small portion of the upper parts of the stalks are 
ground together. Then they are run through a bolting machine 
that tarns out a meal almost as fine as flour and having a rich 
brown color. The meal is then bleached. This having been 
done, it is ready to go to the culinary department of the college 
club. There it is cooked into a large number of palatable dishes. 

There are alfalfa gems, and they are so tender and rich when 
properly cooked that they almost melt in the mouth. The most 
delicate muffins cannot compare with them. They are light, 
palatable and easily digestible. Experts who have studied their 
value as food say that a man can make a meal on alfalfa meal 
muffins and do more work and with less fatigue than he could 
if he had eaten beefsteak, bread and potatoes. Cakes of all 
kinds are made of alfalfa flour, the recipes being similar to 
those employed in the construction of the cakes in which wheat 
flour plays the leading part. For every day bread alfalfa flour 
has been tried at the club. It is darker than wheat flour. The 
taste is most delicious, being a little sweet, and is much more 
palatable if a little sugar is added to the dough before it goes 
into the baking pans. In making bread, yeast is used in about 
the same proportions as in the manufacture of the bread made 
from wheat flour. 

It may be that the day will come when we will 
cease eating animals and when that day comes we 
may possibly take to alfalfa meal; at present it is 
a matter of some interest to know that alfalfa is 
actually rich enough to make food for mankind. 
This ought to give us a clue to several important 
facts. One is as to its value in nourishing animals, 
the other that one can feed it in too liberal and 
wasteful am'Quats. Horges^ for instance, cm con- 



362 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sume more alfalfa tlian they need and more than is 
good for them. Were the alfalfa made into loaves 
of bread no one would dream of filling a horse's 
manger full of these loaves, yet it is all too common 
to stuff them with alfalfa hay. 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 

Before presenting tables of exact composition 
of alfalfa let us consider its relation in productivity 
of nutrients as compared with other common feed 
stuffs. The following table is from a bulletin of 
the New York Experiment station at Geneva: 

In order to show the high feeding value of the alfalfa from an 
acre, the average product obtained at this station during the 
three years past is stated in the following table in comparison 
with the food supplied by several of our best common fodder 
crops. The average of the five alfalfa crops was 34,104 pounds 
of green fodder, or 8,035 pounds of dry matter, containing 1,411 
pounds of protein, 1,103 pounds of this being albuminoids: 



Alfalfa 

Red clover 

Oats and peas 

Corn, entire plant. 

Rutabagas 

Mang-els 

Timothy 

Sugar beets 



Yield per acre 


Dry matter 


of total crop. 


per acre. 


34,100 lbs. 


8,000 lbs. 


18,000 lbs. 


5,220 lbs. 


13,000 lbs. 


3,120 lbs. 


28,000, lbs. 


5,800 lbs. 


31,700 lbs. 


3,400 lbs. 


25,000 lbs. 


3,500 lbs. 


10,000 lbs. 


3,500 lbs. 


17,800 lbs. 


2,500 lbs. 



Total dig-estible 
m.atter per acre. 

5,280 lbs. 
3,200 lbs. 
2,521 lbs. 
3,800 lbs. 
3.000 lbs. 
2,750 lbs. 
2,000 lbs. 
1,800 lbs. 



Dig-estible 
protein. 



875 lbs. 
491 lbs. 
350 lbs. 
300 lbs. 
279 lbs. 
232 lbs. 
228 lbs. 
213 lbs. 



The acreage yields of the several crops given above are such 
as have been secured at different places in this part of the coun- 
try from Pennsylvania to Canada. Sometimes considerably 
larger crops have been obtained, but the average crop would be 
less than any mentioned in the table. 

This is indeed a wonderful showing. More car- 
bohydrates than corn land nearly three times as much 
protein! And the crop of alfalfa, once the field is 
established, can be grown and harvested at much 
less expense than the corn, while corn impoverishes 
land on which it grows and alfalfa enriches it. 



364 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



In order to illustrate this relative production of 
digestible matter more graphically we present two 
charts showing clearly the proportions of total di- 
gestible nutrients and digestible protein in each 
crop: 

TOTAL DIGESTIBLE MATTER PER ACRE. POUNDS. 



ALFALFA 


LBS. 
5280 




> 


CORN 


2800 






RED CLOVER 


3200 






OATS & PEAS 


2521 






TIMOTHY 


2000 






RUTABAGA 


3000 






MANGEL5 


2750 






SUGAR BEETS 


1800 




1 





LBS 


DIGESTIBLE PROTEIN PER ACRE. 




875 








RED CLOVER 


491 










OATS a PEAS 


550 










CORN 


300 










RUTABAGA 


279 










MANGELS 


232 










, TIMOTHY 


228 










SUGAR BEETS 


213 











Kansas Experiments. — J. T. Willard, of the Kan- 
sas experiment station, has done most interesting 
work in investigation of the nutritive qualities of al- 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



365 



falfa and also of the loss of nutritive properties 
through exposure to the weather. We quote him 
from Bulletin 155 : 



COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA HAY. 



First stag'e, about ten per 
cent in bloom 

Second stage, about one- 
half in bloom 

Third stage, full bloom 



7.71 
8.29 



Ash. 



9.49 
7.75 



Crude 
protein. 



16.88 



15.88 
13.23 



Pure 
protein. 



12.63 
10.62 



Crude 
fiber. 



31.44 
33.11 



Nitro- 
gen-free 
extract. 



Crude 
fat. 



34.23 
36.34 



1.42 



1.25 
1.30 



As the amounts of moisture present in a hay are variable and 
not a characteristic of the stage of maturity of the green plant, 
a calculation of the results to a water-free basis is often advan- 
tageous in making comparisons. Doing this for the three sam- 
ples of alfalfa hay we get the following: 



COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA HAY CALCULATED TO A WATER-FREE BASIS 



First stage. . . 
Second stage 
Third stage.. 



Ash. 


Crude 
protein. 


Pure 
protein. 


Crude 
fiber. 


Nitro- 
gen - free 
extract. 


10.45 
10.28 
8.45 


18.50 
17.21 
14.43 


14.86 
14.18 
11.58 


32.20 

35.37 
36.10 


27.29 
34.00 
39.62 



Crude 
fat. 

1.56 
1.05 
1.41 



Without going into the details of a discussion of the charac- 
teristics of the groups of feed principles named in these tables 
it may be useful to remind the reader of certain elementary 
facts. 

The ash of a feeding-stuff is the residue left after burning all 
combustible substances. For the most part this is derived from 
the soil, though it may contain carbon that was secured from 
the carbon-dioxid in the air. 

The crude protein embraces all organic compounds containing 
nitrogen and may even include some inorganic nitrogenous sub- 
stances. 

The pure protein is the crude JD^otein minus certain nitrog- 
enous substances that are less complex than proteins proper, 
and possess a lower food-value. The proteins, by reason of the 
nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus which they contain, are en- 
titled to greater esteem in a feed than are fats and carbohy- 
drates. 

The crude fiber consists of cellulose and substances more or 



366 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

less like it chemically. The toughness and firmness of forage 
plants depend largely on this constituent. Cotton and linen are 
nearly pure cellulose. Obviously the crude fiber is of inferior 
nutritive value; indeed, there is good reason to believe that in 
many cases such of it as is digested by animals is utilized at an 
expenditure of more energy than is yielded by the digested fiber. 

The nitrogen-free extract includes starch and the sugars as 
well as other less well known carbohydrates. In some tables 
this group is listed as carbohydrates, without due regard, how- 
ever, for the fact that the cellulose of the crude fiber is a car- 
bohydrate. 

The crude fat extracted from hay, or from other materials, 
obtained by drying the green parts of plants, includes some 
chlorophyl, the green substances of leaves, and other compounds 
that are not fats, as well as any fat in the feed. 

The water of a feed possesses no nutritive power and is not 
differont from water taken by drinking. 

Studying now the table showing the percentages of the sev- 
eral constituents of the water-free hay, it will be seen that there 
are progressive changes as the plant becomes more mature. It 
must not be supposed, however, that there is an actual decrease 
in the total amount of any food principle in the crop, but only 
that as maturity takes place certain constituents are produced 
in greater proportion, thus adding tO' their percentage amount 
while correspondingly reducing the percentage of the constitu- 
ents produced at a slower rate. 

The hay produced by cutting when the alfalfa was about ten 
per cent, in bloom is seen to be richer in ash, protein and fat 
than that produced by later cuttings, while the crude fiber and 
the nitrogen-free extract increase in percentage as the plant 
matures. The especially valuable protein is present to an extent 
more than one-fourth greater in the hay made at the first stage 
than it is in that made at the third stage, while the questionable 
crude fiber is more abundant in the later stages. 

Digep.tiMlity of Alfalfa. — While it is true that a certain residue 
of indigestible matter is necessary for animals, and especially 
for ruminants, which are accustomed to bulky feed, we seldom 
need to give attention to this in practice, as feeds are ordinarily 
excessively supplied with such indigestible substances. Quite 
the reverse, we are justified in prizing more highly those feeds 
which show a high degree of digestibility. A proper apprecia- 
tion of alfalfa hay thus requires consideration of its digestibility. 

The digestibility of the hays referred to was ascertained and 
the following table shows the results. It gives the percentages 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



367 



of the several constituents of alfalfa hay digested, first crop, 
three stages of growth, calculated to water-free basis: 



First stag-e . . , 
Second stag-e 
Third stag-e.. 



Ash. 

6.69 

5.78 
5.16 


Crude 
protein. 


Pure 

protein. 


Fiber. 


Nitrog-en- 

free 
extract. 


Crude 
fat. 


14.51 

12.89 
11.37 


11.94 
9.90 

8.57 


14.51 
17.11 
17.43 


28.52 
26.96 
30.72 


0.98 
0.42 
0.75 



Total. 



65.21 
63.16 
65.43 



Here it is seen that the digestible protein diminishes marked- 
ly as the alfalfa matures, while the digestible carbohydrates in- 
crease. A calculation of the nutritive ratio in each case brings 
out this fact in a concise way. The nutritive ratio of a feed 
is the ratio of the energy of the digestible nitrogenous sub- 
stances to the energy of the digestible non-nitrogenous sub- 
stances. Making the necessary calculations, the nutritive ratios 
are found to be as follows: First stage, 1 to 3.11; second stage, 
1 to 3.49; third stage, 1 to 4.38. These are all narrow ratios 
but widen as the alfalfa matures. 

A full appreciation of the feeding value of alfalfa cannot be 
had without comparisons with other feeds. The a,verage per- 
centage of digestible constituents in certain well known feeds is 
shown in the following table: 





FEED. 


Protein. 




7.14 
9.25 
10.28 
12.01 

7138 


Oats 


Wheat 


Bran 


Shorts 


Timothy hay 









Carbohy- 
drates. 

66.12 
48.34 
69.21 
41.23 
49.98 
43.72 
38.15 



Fat. 



4.97 
4.18 
1.68 
2.87 
3.83 
1.43 
1.81 



Nutritive 
ratio. 



1:10.8 
1: 6.2 
1: 7.1 
1: 4.0 
1: 4.8 
1:16.2 
1: 5.7 



It will be seen that alfalfa cut at the first stage gave a hay 
that had a higher percentage of digestible protein than any of 
the feeds named in the table, and that the digestible carbohy- 
drates (fiber plus nitrogen-free extract) of alfalfa compare favor- 
ably with those in the feeds cited, and in some cases exceed 
them. The nutritive ratios bring out clearly the value of alfalfa 
as a source of protein, and its great availability in balancing 
rations. 

Many analyses of alfalfa made at other experiment stations, 
with such digestive experiments as have been performed, show 
the same general results as are exhibited in the foregoing. The 
earlier cuttings are richer in protein, but a high and nearly 



368 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



equal degree of digestibility for the protein present is possessed 
by all cuttings, so that their relative feeding value is prac- 
tically indicated by their composition. Nearly three-fourths of 
the protein of alfalfa and about sixty per cent, of the carbohy- 
drates are digestible. 

Composition of the Different Parts. — The statements made thus 
far apply to hay from the entire plant. It is, however, well 
known that there are great differences between the stems and 
the leaves. The most detailed analyses in this connection have 
been made at the Utah station. From a mass of data concern- 
ing cuttings made at different dates and upon different crops, 
those concerning the first crop, cut in the early bloom, have 
been selected and placed in the tables shown below. The first 
one shows the yield of dry matter in pounds per acre, and also 
the weight of the stalks, leaves and flowers separately. It also 
shows the composition of each of these parts and of the whole 
plant: 



PART OF PLANT. 


Yield, 
per acre, 
pounds. 

28.38 

18.56 

1.36 

48.31 


Ash. 


Protein. 


Fiber. 


Nitrogen- 
free 
extract. 


Fat. 


Stalks. . 


9.01 
14.33 
10.56 
11.10 


10.74 
24.05 
26.18 
16.30 


42.17 
13.81 
15.58 
30.53 


37.14 
41.82 
46.00 
39.23 


94 




5 99 




1 68 


Whole plant 


2 92 







From the above table we see that the leaves and flowers are 
far richer in protein than are the stalks, while the reverse is 
true in respect to fiber. Nitrogen-free extract does not show 
so great a difference but the stalks are notably inferior. In the 
next table the data are presented in a different form. It shows 
percentages of ash, protein and fiber in each of the different 
parts of the alfalfa plant, to total amount of that constituent 
in entire plant: 



PAKT OF PLANT. 


Yield, 
per cent. 


Ash. 


Protein. 


Fiber. 


Nitrogen- 
free 
extract. 


Fat. 


Stalks 

Leaves 

Flowers 


58.75 
38.43 

2.82 


47. C9 
49.62 
2.69 


38.73 
56.74 
4.53 


81.17 
17.39 
1.44 


55.68 
41.01 
3.31 


19.03 
79.34 
1 63 







The above table shows that of the total yield 58.75 per cent, 
is in stalks, but that of the total protein only 38.73 per cent, is 
in them, while they contain over 81 per cent of the total fiber. 
On the other hand the leaves, constituting but 38.43 per cent. 
of the yield, contain 56.74 per cent, of the protein of the entire 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



369 



crop and only 17.39 per cent of the fiber. The nitrogen-free ex- 
tract is not so disproportionately divided between the stalks 
and the leaves. Over four-fifths of the fat is furnished by the 
leaves and flowers, though they make up but little over two- 
fifths of the weight. We see from this the exceeding import- 
ance of so handling the crop as to preserve the leaves and 
flowers. By the loss of all of these the feeding value will be 
impaired much more than the loss in weight would indicate. 

Loss by Weathering. — It is apparent, to all that alfalfa hay is 
greatly damaged by rain. This is due not only to fermentations 
that may accompany the process and to mechanical losses, but 
also to the fact that soluble substances are dissolved out and 
removed. Observations have been made by the Colorado ex- 
periment station upon a hay which was exposed in the field for 
fifteen days, during which time it was subjected to three rains, 
amounting to 1.76 inches. The following table shows the per- 
centage composition of the damaged and of the undamaged hay: 





Ash. 


Protein. 


Fiber 


Nitrogen- 
free 

extract. 

38.7 
33.6 


Pat. 


Orig-inal 


12.2 

12.7 


18. T 
11.0 


26.5 

38.8 


3.9 




3.8 







The above figures as given show that the damaged hay is 
considerably inferior to the undamaged, but like many other 
percentage statements is liable to be misunderstood, or at least 
not completely understood. It must not be supposed that the 
protein and nitrogen-free extract have been converted into crude 
fiber, although the damaged hay contains nearly 39 per cent. 
of crude fiber, where the undamaged hay had 26.5 per cent.; 
at the same time the protein and nitrogen-free extract are pres- 
ent in much smaller quantity in the damaged hay. The facts 
are that undoubtedly portions of all these food principles have 
been lost from the crop as a whole, but that the protein and 
the nitrogen-free extract have suffered much more propor- 
tionately than the crude fiber, this being almost insoluble and 
not subject to rapid fermentation. 

A much more instructive view of the actual losses is ob- 
tained by additional calculations. The loss sustained by the 
alfalfa naturally fell most heavily upon the soluble and more 
easily decomposed substances. The most resistant of the con- 
stituents was the fiber, which probably suffered but little. Tak- 
ing the crop as a whole then there would be as much or nearly 
as much fiber as there was before, excepting that which was lost 



370 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



mechanically. We may use this figure as a measure of the 
minimum losses by others. In every 100 pounds of the original 
hay there were 26.5 pounds of fiber, and after it was damaged 
there could not have been any more, and in fact there must have 
been less. If we make the most favorable assumption, viz., 
that there was no loss of fiber, then the 38.8 per cent, of fiber 
in the damaged hay is really the fiber that was 26.5 per cent, 
of the original hay. The apparent increase in the percentage 
is due entirely to the loss of other constituents. The figures 
representing the percentages of the other constituents as given 
above are all correspondingly too high for comparison with the 
percentages of those constituents in the original hay. In the 
following table the weights of these constituents accompanying 
26.5 pounds of fiber in the damaged hay have been calculated. 
These are to the percentages of those constituents in the 
damaged hay as 26.5 is to 38.8: 





Ash. 


Protein. 


Fiber. 


Nitrog-en- 

free 
extract. 


Fat. 


Total. 


Orlgrinal . 


12.2 

8.7 
3.5 

28.7 


18.7 
7.5 
11.2 
60.0 


26.5 
26.5 


38.7 
23.0 
15 7 
41.0 


3.9 
2.6 
1.3 
33.3 


100 


Damagred 


68.3 
31.7 


Per cent lost 


31.7 



Comparing these figures, it will be seen that of the original 
100 pounds of hay only 68.8 pounds remained; that 60 per cent. 
of the protein was lost, one-third of the fat, and il per cent, of 
the nitrogen-free extract. As the assumption in reference to 
fiber was more favorable than the facts, so this calculation in 
respec*: to protein, fat and nitrogen-free extract gives figures 
that are more favorable than was actually the case. 

Startling as the losses indicated by the preceding calculations 
are, the actual damage is even greater than is indicated by 
them. Since the materials lost obviously consisted of the most 
soluble and easijy decomposed parts, and hence the parts most 
easily digested, \ smaller percentage of the protein remaining 
was digestible in all probability than would have been the case 
with the protein that was lost. It is quite reasonable to assume 
that one-half of the feed values of the crop had been lost from an 
exposure to rain that was not excessive in quantity and fell in 
three different showers. 

West gate's Bulletin. — From J. M. Westgate's ad- 
mirable bulletin (Farmers' Bulletin 339, Department 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



371 



of Agriculture) we extract the following useful and 
instructive tables : 

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA AND OTHER 
FORAGE CROPS.* 



KIND OP 
FOKAGE. 



Fresh alfalfa.. 
Fresh clover.. 
Alfalfa hay... 
Clover hay — 
Timothy hay.. 
Cowpea hay.. 



Number 
of analy- 
ses. 


Water. 


Ash. 


Protein. 


Crude 
fiber. 




Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


23 


71.8 


2.7 


4.8 


7.4 


43 


70.8 


2.1 


4.4 


8.1 


21 


8.4 


7.4 


14.3 


25.0 


38 


15.3 


6.2 


12.3 


24.8 


68 


13.2 


4.4 


5.9 


29.0 


8 


10.7 


7.5 


16.6 


20.1 




Ether 

extract 

(fat). 



Per cent 
1.0 
l.I 
2.2 
3.3 
2.5 
2.2 



*In part from Henry's "Feeds and Feeding," Appendix. 



AVERAGE PERCENTAGE OF DIGESTIBILITY OF ALFALFA AND OTHER 

FORAGE CROPS. 

(Experiments with ruminants.) 



KIND OF FORAGE. 



Fresh alfalfa. 
Fresh clover. 
Alfalfa hay.. 
Clover hay. . . 
Timothy hay. 
Cowpea hay . 



Number of 
experiments. 


Protein. 


Crude 
fiber. 




Per cent 


Per cent 


2 


81 


45 


2 


67 


53 


28 


73 


43 


46 


55 


49 


26 


48 


52 


2 


65 


43 



Nitrog-en-free 
extract. 



Per cent 
76 
78 
66 
69 
63 
71 



Ether extract 
(fat). 



Per cent 
52 
65 
54 
53 
57 
50 



DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN ALFALFA AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS. 





Dry matter in 
100 lbs. 


DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN 
100 LBS. 


KIND OF FORAGE. 


Protein. 


Carbohy- 
drates. 

12.7 lbs. 

14.8 lbs. 
39.6 lbs. 
35.8 lbs. 
43.4 lbs. 

38.6 lbs 
?9.2 lbs. 

66.7 lbs. 


Ether 
extract. 


Fresh alfalfa 


28.2 lbs. 

29.2 lbs. 

91.6 lbs. 

84.7 lbs. 

86.8 lbs. 

89.3 lbs. 
88.1 lbs. 
89.1 lbs. 


3.9 lbs. 
2.9 lbs. 
11.0 lbs. 
6.8 lbs. 

2.8 lbs. 
10.8 lbs. 
12.2 lbs. 

7.9 lbs. 


0.5 lbs. 


Fresh clover. ... 


0.7 lbs. 


Alfalfa hay 


1.2 lbs. 


Clover hay ... 


1.7 lbs. 




1.4 lbs. 


Cowpea hay 


1.1 lbs. 




2.7 lbs. 


Shelled corn 


4.3 lbs. 







The following table indicates the actual feeding value of 
eight different kinds of feed, based on the amount of digestible 
nutrients contained in them. These values are calculated from 
the figures given in the table just preceding. The values per 
pound assigned as the basis of calculation are protein, $0.0674; 
carbohydrates (starches, etc), $0.0064; ether extract (fats), 
$0.0112. These figures are merely relative, as the prices of the 



372 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

food elements vary in the different sections and from year to 
year. It will be noted that the value of alfalfa hay is slightly 
more than double that of timothy. 

ACTUAL FEEDING VALUE OF DIFFERENT FEEDS BASED ON AMOUNT OF 
DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS. 
Feed. Value per ton. 

Fresh alfalfa $7. 00 

Fresh clover 5.86 

Alfalfa hay 20.16 

Clover hay 14.13 

Timothy hay 9.80 

Cowpea hay , 19.76 

Wheat bran 22.80 

Shelled corn 20. 15 



ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 

The place of alfalfa as a horse feed has not yet 
been settled beyond dispute. Most men who have 
not used it are opposed to its use and bring forward 
very good arguments against it. On the other hand 
in alfalfa-growing countries are found some of the 
best developed and most healthy and useful horses 
in the world. I have seen in the alfalfa pastures of 
California wonderful young horses, weanlings and 
foals, that never ate any other food than their 
mother's milk and alfalfa, with what little wild 
grass might be mixed through the field. These colts 
running all summer on the alfalfa meadows and be- 
ing fed alfalfa hay during winter reach a magnificent 
development and are often as large and well finished 
at two years as they would be at three in a land 
where they ate timothy hay instead of alfalfa. 

In France quite a little use of alfalfa is made in 
the horse breeding districts and has been from time 
immemorial. In England always, so far as history 
tells, progressive farmers have grown alfalfa and 
fed it green in summer time. 

Personal Experience. — The writer has had experi- 
ence with seeding alfalfa to horses since 1887. He 
began it on the Utah ranch and has continued it 
on Woodland Farm in Ohio since his return. In 
Utah the horses were most of them used under the 

(373) 



374 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

saddle. The country was extremely rough and the 
going bad. A horse must have endurance, speed, 
bottom. It is charged that alfalfa makes a horse 
soft, lacking in endurance, sweating easily. There 
is truth in the charge ; we will explain it later. The 
fact is no horses could have worked better under 
the saddle than did these alfalfa-fed range horses. 
They had no other hay and for grain they had corn ; 
we had nothing else for them. 

And yet it is true that the horses worked best 
when they were worked regularly and worked hard. 
If they were idle for a long time, meanwhile eating 
much alfalfa hay, they did get soft and sweated 
considerably when suddenly put to work. I do not 
attempt to explain this fact. I think that the reason 
is that the idle horses ate too much alfalfa hay, 
took into their systems several times as much pro- 
tein as their bodies needed or could use, and thus 
induced some sort of unhealthful condition of the 
body cells. It did not take them long to get hard 
under work. But it is assuredly true that idle- 
ness and excessive alfalfa feeding will make a horse 
soft. Idleness and six eggs a day will make all sorts 
of things wrong with a man, for that matter. 

That alfalfa will develop a hard horse is evidenced 
by the fact that not a few splendid race horses have 
been developed in California and elsewhere on a 
diet almost altogether composed of alfalfa hay and 
pasture. 

No Heaves nor Colic— At Woodland Farm for 



ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 375 

many years no other hay has been in use. In truth 
the horses refuse to eat timothy hay, having become 
accustomed to alfalfa. Before alfalfa came into use 
there was nearly always one or more horses with 
heaves, but since we have had alfalfa hay we have 
not had one case of this disease. Oolic among 
horses is the bane of the farmer and horseman. Once 
the veterinary bills were a considerable item on 
Woodland Farm. Now colic is a rare thing, and 
would probably never occur again if the men did 
not occasionally feed injudiciously of corn, or over- 
feed with alfalfa hay. 

Less Grain Needed. — We have learned that very 
much less grain is required where alfalfa is fed, not 
much more than half the usual ration. Why should 
not this be true! Alfalfa itself is as rich, very 
nearly, as wheat bran, itself a good grain food for a 
horse. Alfalfa is nearly as rich a food as oats. 
Horses will do a great deal of hard work with no 
grain at all if they have first-class alfalfa hay, but 
I do not recommend this. The horse has a small 
stomach and not much time for masticating his food. 
A small grain ration with his alfalfa hay is right. 

Action on Kidneys. — It has been urged that the 
foundation for this rumor or belief is that when a 
horse unused to alfalfa is fed it for the first time 
it does stimulate its kidneys so that there is a 
noticeable increase in the amount of urine voided. 
I think this never really injures the animal and 
the gymptom§ disappear in a short time. If al* 



376 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

falfa was fed in moderation, less than the animal 
desired, it is not likely that it would ever so affect 
him. It is only nature's way of throwing off pro- 
tein which has been consumed in excess of what the 
animal could use. 

On Woodland Farm are horses that have grown 
up on alfalfa and have never eaten any other hay 
in their lives. Their kidneys are sound. They do 
not urinate more frequently than is normal, nor 
void an excess of urine. Further, their urine is 
clear, not cloudy nor muddy. The fact is the trou- 
bles arising from alfalfa feeding are usually ex- 
perienced by men having little or no alfalfa to feed. 
Ask a man who really grows it and feeds it and he 
will almost always reply that there is no better 
feed for horses and no bad results arise from reg- 
ular and continued feeding of it. 

Alfalfa for Young Horses. — There is certainly 
nothing else so good for the draft colt and its moth- 
er. Here one seeks size and development. Alfalfa 
will surely give it. Let the mare have the run of an 
alfalfa field in summer with a grass lot adjoining, 
or have grass mixed through the alfalfa. Feed her 
and her colt alfalfa hay in winter and as much 
development can be had at two years old as will be 
had at three by the usual feeding of timothy hay. 
And there is nothing yet discovered to show that 
this early growth is not as good as though it camQ 
later. In truth it is certain that the later develop- 
ing oolt will never reach the size and conformation 



ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 377 

that the one attains that has had the right food from 
the beginning, and enough of it. 

Alfalfa for Brood Mares. — As to the effect of al- 
falfa hay on the breeding of mares, opinions differ. 
Alfalfa-fed mares are apt to be fleshy. It is very 
possible that in some instances they may become 
too fat to conceive well. It may be that during the 
breeding season the mares should have less or pos- 
sibly no alfalfa hay. We need further evidence 
along this line. Certain it is that after the mare is 
safely with foal a diet composed chiefly of alfalfa 
is very good for her. I know of no injury that can 
follow feeding her alfalfa and pasturing her on al- 
falfa till her colt is foaled. Certainly all mares 
are better to work up until that time, not hard but 
regularly, and no pregnant animal should live a life 
of idleness or stagnation, nor become too fleshy. 

Making Horse Hay. — I think the first cutting 
makes as good hay for horses as any. It ought to 
be on the side of over-ripeness rather than to be 
too green, though one can err in letting it become 
too woody. It ought to be well cured and put into 
the barn as dry as possible. Then there will be no 
mold nor dust on it. Alfalfa leaves and stems are 
free from the small hairs that abound on red clover 
leaves and stems. These hairs make hay dusty and 
irritate the bronchial passages of the horse. That 
is one reason why one can feed alfalfa safely and can 
not feed red clover so well. 

Fattening Sale Horses. — Many owners of sale 



378 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

stables now use alfalfa hay almost exclusively, find- 
ing that the animals gain in weight much more rap- 
idly on an alfalfa diet than upon any other. Many 
eastern horse (breeders who have not learned to 
grow alfalfa are sending their colts to be pastured in 
western alfalfa fields, there to develop. 

Over-feeding with Hay. — E. J. Kinzer and G. 0. 
Wheeler of the Kansas experiment station have pub- 
lished the subjoined observations on feeding hay to 
horses : 

A majority of horse owners are inclined to waste hay in feed- 
ing horses, i. e., they feed more than is necessary for the main- 
tenance of the horse and more than he can economically take care 
of. This is true of other kinds of hay as well as of alfalfa. 

Either heavy or light horses that are doing regular steady 
work should not, if one wishes to feed economically, have more 
than one pound of hay per hundred pounds of live weight. 
That is, a thousand-pound horse should receive 10 pounds of 
hay per day and a 1,500-pound horse 15 pounds per day. A 1,500- 
pound horse that is doing steady work should have about 4 lbs, 
of hay with his morning feed, the same amount at noon, and 
about double the amount at night. Many horses will eat 30 or 40 
pounds of hay a day if they have free access to it. If a horse is 
allowed to eat such quantities half of it is wasted, and if he is 
eating that amount of alfalfa hay it is worse than wasted, for it 
does the horse an injury. From two to two and a half pounds of 
digestible protein is all that an ordinary horse can utilize in a 
day, and in 100 pounds of alfalfa there are 11 pounds of digestible 
protein. This fare of alfalfa, if too heavily fed, is likely to cause 
kidney disorder, and may even be responsible for abortion in 
pregnant mares that are fed too liberal a ration of it. If it does 
not cause abortion, weak unhealthy foals will be the result. 

Have alfalfa fed judiciously to pregnant mares, heavy or light 
work horses, and it is beneficial and should be used wherever it 
is obtainable, but it should never be used as the exclusive rough- 
age. Some objection is made to it on account of causing loose- 
ness of the bowels and making the horses soft and easy to sweat. 
This is due to their having it in too large quantities. Alfalfa 
hay should be fed as part of the grain ration rather than a 



ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 379 

roughage. If fed in this manner its use will be found very 
satisfactory, 

I think the danger of over-feeding exaggerated, 
yet it is assuredly a waste to over-feed it, and it 
must do more or less harm to the horse. In fact 
it is one of the greatest lessons of modern times that 
mankind may increase its energy and usefulness very 
greatly by limiting the accustomed intake of rich 
nitrogenous food, taking merely what is needed to 
repair waste and rebuild the body, instead of taking 
' ^ all it can hold, ' ' merely for the pleasure of eating. 

Developing Draft Horses. — When will we cease 
sending to France, Belgium and Great Britain for 
our draft stallions? Wlien we have wide alfalfa 
fields and plenty of them. There are men finding 
the way to produce splendid draft animals at low 
cost in America. J. W Eobison of Kansas i'^ 
growing Percherons in alfalfa pasture. It is said 
that his three-year-old colts average 1,700 pounds 
and his four-year-olds 1,900 pounds. Alfalfa is al- 
most the only food given either mares or colts. Be- 
fore foaling no grain is fed, only alfalfa hay or pas- 
ture being given, and the colts come strong and the 
mothers free from feverish tendencies and full of 
milk. Colts so developed have action and quality - 

Safety of Alfalfa Pasture. — There is more or less 
danger in depasturing alfalfa with sheep or cattle. 
With horses I have never seen or heard of any 
trouble resulting from this practice. They seem to 
know instinctively how much to eat and when to 
cease eating. Horses are not so subject to bloat. 



ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 

Experienced men say that whatever alfalfa may 
or may not be adapted to it is certainly in its 
place as a food for cattle. It is the natural food of 
all ruminants. They greatly relish the taste of it. 
They chew it well and almost completely digest it. 
They are in little danger of eating too mnch of it. 
Cattle thrive exceedingly on a diet of good alfalfa 
hay. Many years ago the writer stacked alfalfa hay 
in Utah, and in winter time fattened steers on it with 
no grain at all. They made good beef. It would 
have been better, no doubt, to have fed them some 
grain in connection with the alfalfa hay, but grain 
was not to be had. The beef sold well on Denver and 
Salt Lake City markets in the spring. It killed well. 

Alfalfa alone is better as a maintenance ration 
than as a complete ration, however. It is full of 
protein, and deficient in carbohydrates and fat. It 
will grow animals or maintain them beautifully. 
With a little grain added it will grow them and finish 
them at the same moment. 

Trials in Colorado. — Prof. "W. L. Carlyle and C. 
J. Griffith of the Colorado experiment station went 
into this matter quite carefully in 1905, comparing 
alfalfa hay alone and in combination with sugar beet 
pulp and ground corn. Unfortunately the alfalfa 
hay used was much below the average, being very 
coarse, cut too ripe presumably, and was seriously 

(380) 



ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 



381 



injured in curing. With good alfalfa hay the results 
would have been more favorable to alfalfa feeding. 
The average weekly gain of these steers was as 
follows : 

Lot 1— Fed beet pulp, hay and ground corn (maize) 19.0 lbs. 

Lot 2— Fed hay and ground corn 12.6 lbs. 

Lot 3— Fed beet pulp and hay 13.1 lbs. 

Lot 4— Fed alfalfa hay only 10.5 lbs. 

It will be noted that the gain was only 2.1 pounds 
greater when corn was fed than when alfalfa was 
fed alone. The cattle were fatter however and thus 
brought more money per pound in the market. 

AVERAGE AMOUNT FEED REQUIRED FOR ONE POUND OF GAIN, 
AND COST OF THE SAME. 





FOOD FED. 


Cost. 




Alfalfa. 


Pulp. 


Cornmeal. 


Lot 1 


7.59 lbs. 
17.78 lbs. 
11.89 lbs. 
28.29 lbs. 


35.45 lbs. 


2.51 lbs. 
3.76 lbs. 


4 22 cents 


Lot 2 




Lot 3 


52.83 lbs. 


4 28 cents 


Lot i 















Here is given the data showing the amounts of the various 
kinds of feed required to produce a pound of live weight gain on 
a rather rough bunch of steers rising three years old. From this 
table it will be seen that in case of Lot IV it required 28.29 lbs. 
of alfalfa hay, below the average in quality, to produce one pound 
of gain. With an average lot of good feeding steers, and alfalfa 
hay of good feeding quality, the indications are that one pound 
of gain would be produced for each 25 lbs. of alfalfa hay on 
the average. 





Lotl. 


Lot 2. 


Lots. 


Lot 4. 


Weight at beginning of experiment (lbs.) 


951 

$28.53 

$12.95 

$4.60 

$3.25 

1,214 

1,157 

57 

$5.15 

$59.58 

$2.15 


968 

$29.04 

$13.44 

$7.63 

$3.25 

1,144 

1,088 

56 

$5.06 

$55.05 

$2.15 


941 

$28.23 

$7.90 

$4.29 

$3.25 

1,125 

1,050 

75 

$5.00 

$52.25 

$2.15 


968 
$29 04 


Cost entire period, 100 days 


$10.39 


Cost of feed for 100 lbs. gain 

Cost of labor in feeding'. . 


$7.04 
$3 25 


Weight finished steer at feedlots (lbs.) 

Sale weight of steer at Denver (lbs.) 


1,115 

1,062 

53 




Selling' price per 100 lbs 


$4 73 




$50 25 


Cost of marketing 


$2 15 






Net profits 


$12.70 


$7.16 


$10.97 


$5 44 







382 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

In the foregoing table is given a complete summary showing 
the average of each steer in the various lots. This table contains 
very complete data covering the various points of comparison in 
the results obtained with the average steer in each lot. 
The conclusions drawn are thus stated: 

1. An average feeder steer two years old will make a gain of 
1.5 lbs. per day on alfalfa hay alone, and will require approxi- 
mately 28 lbs. of hay to make one pound of gain. 

2. The addition of ground corn to the ration of alfalfa hay 
will increase the daily gain, increase the market price of the steer 
by finishing him better in a given time, and will add to the profits 
if the corn can be procured below 90 cents per hundred pounds. 

3. A pound of ground corn is equal in feeding value to 2.8 
lbs. of alfalfa hay and to 9 pounds of sugar beet pulp for feed- 
ing two-year-old fattening steers. 

4. Sugar beet pulp at present prices is a cheaper and better 
feed than ground corn when fed with alfalfa hay for fattening 
mature steers. 

5. That 3.22 of beet pulp is equivalent in feeding value to 
one pound of alfalfa hay, when fed in conjunction with the hay, 
giving two-year-old steers all they will eat of both feeds. 

6. With alfalfa hay at $5 a ton, it will pay to feed a light 
ration of ground corn with the hay, provided the corn can be 
purchased at from 85 to 90 cents per hundred weight. 

7. With poor alfalfa hay at $5 per ton, sugar beet pulp is 
worth S1.50 per ton to combine with hay for fattening mature 
steers. 

8. Fattening steers will gain approximately a pound a day 
more on a ration composed of alfalfa hay, ground corn and beet 
pulp than they will on a ration made up of alfalfa hay and 
ground corn or on a ration composed of alfalfa hay and sugar 
beet pulp, and they will gain almost one and a half pounds more 
each day on the above ration than when fed alfalfa hay alone. 

Experiments in Kansas. — Showing how alfalfa 
hay in the ration cheapens the cost of beef produc- 
tion, we quote from Bulletin 132 of the Kansas ex- 
periment station, relative to work done at the Fort 
Hays branch station : 

A matter of this experiment of considerable interest, especially 
to the western farmer, is the part that the various roughages play 
in beef production. A ration of alfalfa hay, at $4.00 per ton. 



ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 383 

with corn and cob meal produced 100 pounds of gain for $5.13; 
but when KafRr-corn hay at $3.00 per ton was substituted for 
alfalfa hay, the cost of 100 pounds of gain was increased to 
$7.32, while with sorghum hay at $3.00 per ton substituted for 
the alfalfa hay the cost was increased to $9.06. In other words, 
one bushel of corn-and-cob meal fed with alfalfa hay as rough- 
age produced 11.8 pounds of flesh, while the sam.e amount of 
corn-and-cob meal fed with sorghum hay as roughage gave in 
return only 6.25 pounds of flesh; thus, a difference of 5.5 pounds, 
or 88 per cent in favor of the alfalfa hay ration. 

Tests in Other States. — ^A summary of trials in 
beef making with alfalfa is thus presented by J. 
M. Westgate, of the Department of Agriculture : 

Alfalfa forms probably the best roughage for fattening cattle, 
as its lack of bulkiness enables the animals to consume suffi- 
cient quantities for rapid gains. It is also very valuable for 
young growing stock before the fattening period commences. 

The Utah Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an ex- 
periment extending over a period of five years to determine the 
quantity of beef produced to the acre from alfalfa hay cut in 
the different stages of maturity. It was found that hay cut when 
in full bloom produced 562 pounds of beef annually to the acre, 
while that cut in early bloom produced 706 pounds. The hay 
that was not cut until half the blooms had fallen produced only 
490 pounds of beef to the acre. At the Nebraska Agricultural 
Experiment Station 2.41 pounds of beef were produced daily on 
a full ration of corn and alfalfa, while only 1.48 pounds were 
produced by a ration of corn and prairie hay. 

The North Platte Substation of Nebraska has given, in Bul- 
letin No. 105, some valuable data on the great value of alfalfa 
in growing and developing beef cattle. The first test compared 
alfalfa, prairie hay and cane in wintering calves where all lots 
received two pounds of grain daily per calf. During the winter- 
feeding period of the experiment alfalfa produced 143 pounds 
of gain per head; prairie hay, 76 pounds; cane, 46 pounds, and 
half-and-half alfalfa and prairie hay, 133 pounds, and half-and- 
half alfalfa and cane, 120 pounds of gain. 

The year following the same cattle were wintered as yearlings 
on the same rations, except that no grain was fed. The alfalfa 
lot gained 81 pounds per head in 120 days; the prairie-hay lot 
lost 18 pounds; the cane-hay lot lost 64 pounds; the half-and- 
half alfalfa and prairie hay gained 62 pounds and the half-and- 



384 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

half alfalfa and cane gained 92 pounds each. The amount of 
hay consumed or wasted about' the racks daily per steer ranged 
from 18.7 pounds in the prairie-hay lot to 24 pounds in the 
cane lot, 20.2 pounds being eaten daily per head by the steers 
receiving alfalfa alone. From the fact that the half-and-half 
ration gave equally good gains with straight alfalfa, it would 
seem to be economy to use some of these cheaper roughages with 
alfalfa for wintering steers. 

While no accurate data have been kept, it has been the com- 
mon practice to winter the breeding cows of the pure-bred herd 
of the Kansas experiment station upon alfalfa hay and corn- 
stover, the alfalfa being fed in racks and the stover fed out on 
the pasture as much as possible. This method of feeding has 
kept the cows in splendid breeding condition, and the use of the 
stover has resulted in cheapening the cost of their maintenance 
from that of straight alfalfa feeding. 

Results at Woodland. — On Woodland Farm tlie 
best and cheapest beef ever produced was from 
young cattle given all the alfalfa hay they would 
eat up clean, corn silage and a small ration of ear . 
corn. 

Meeting Competition. — In Argentina where alfalfa 
growing is assuming large proportions it is becom- 
ing a common thing to finish cattle with alfalfa hay 
and corn maize. Better beef is thus produced and 
a better price secured for it. Argentina, that young 
giant of the Southland, is our most formidable com- 
petitor in the business of furnishing England with 
bread and meat. The use of corn and alfalfa there, 
although already assuming large proportions, is yet 
in its infancy. We in America must awaken to our 
possibilities. We can grow alfalfa. We can grow it 
in practically every county in the United States, cer- 
tainly with greater ease in some places than in 
others, yet almost any of us can grow it. We grow 



ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 385 

corn with greater success than the Argentine. Our 
cattle are better. With abundant alfalfa all over 
our land we will be able to more than hold our own 
against this competition. 

That is the dream of the writer, that he may has- 
ten the day when alfalfa meadows will be common 
in nearly every township in the United States, mows 
filled with alfalfa hay, stacks standing in the fields, 
yards and corrals filled with good cattle, abundant 
supplies of manure made available, fields becoming 
richer rather than poorer, and country people hav- 
ing Wherewithal to live as country people ought to 
live, in comfort, sending their sons to agricultural 
colleges and their daughters as well, both to come 
back to the farms and there continue the labor of 
soil-building, field-beautifying and home-making. 



ALFALFA FOR DAIRY GOWS. 

Here is found best of all uses for alfalfa. Dairy 
cows are macliines for making milk. Milk is a ma- 
terial requiring large amounts of protein for its 
manufacture. Dairy cows are machines and they 
are somewhat delicate machines. They require 
large amounts of protein, but they thrive better 
when that protein is furnished them in the shape of 
forage than if it is given them in concentrated form. 
One may buy protein; he can get it in cottonseed- 
meal, linseed-meal, gluten meal or other form, and 
by feeding the right amount get the proper nutrients 
in the feed, but that does not at all equal in effect 
the feeding of a ration mixed ''as God mixed it" — 
that is, a forage such as alfalfa, delicious in flavor, 
rich enough, not too rich, bulky enough, not too 
bulky. 

Stimulating Flotv of Milk. — In truth there is no 
artificial blending of foods that will give the results 
that feeding alfalfa will. An illustration of this is 
furnished by the experience of a Pennsylvania 
breeder of Guernsey cattle. This man bought some 
alfalfa hay from Woodland Farm. After using it 
for a few weeks he wrote : 

' ' Our Guernsey cows are entered in the official test 
for position in the advanced registry. Naturally 
therefore we have been feeding them as well as we 
knew how to feed them. Since they had your al- 

(386) 



ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 387 

falfa liay they have increased 20 per cent in their 
milk flow." 

This man is now growing his own alfalfa, and his 
neighbors are learning from his example. In his 
region the plant was unknown nntil he began its 
culture. The secret of growing it there was the use 
of plenty of lime in the soil, then manure, phos- 
phorus and mid-summer seeding. 

Value to Dairymen. — There is not a dairyman liv- 
ing who is not at too high an elevation who should 
not make effort to grow alfalfa, as no one else needs 
it so much. He can stop the purchase of protein. 
He can keep cows in perfect health and vigor. He 
can get the most milk that they are capable of giving 
if he has alfalfa. And he can, and should, feed it 
nearly day of the year. Let him begin early in 
spring by cutting it green and soiling; let him feed 
dry alfalfa hay when pastures are too lush and there 
is danger of cows scouring in June ; let him feed it 
green when pastures fail in August and September ; 
let him feed alfalfa hay and corn silage after frost 
comes, or before for that matter. Thus the milk 
comes freely the year around, and all from feed pro- 
duced on his own farm. 

A Little Grain Needed. — With alfalfa and corn 
silage nearly a balanced ration is found. Very little 
grain need be fed in addition, though it is economy 
to feed a small amount, since cows need a little less 
bulk than it would take to furnish nutrients enough 
in alfalfa and silage alone. 



388 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Maintains Vigor, — One thing that should be well 
empha^zed is that where alfalfa hay is fed liberally 
cows keep in splendid health and strength. They 
may be made to give as much milk by feeding other 
feeds. Cows will give milk liberally and be phys- 
ical wrecks, and when fed on the forcing process 
with what must be classed as artificial foods they 
frequently go down in vitality so that they are prey 
to any sort of malady that may happen to overtake 
them. When fed liberally on alfalfa they give as 
much milk or more, they carry more flesh, they have 
better tone, more abundant vigor, breed better, drop 
stronger calves, the calves grow into better heifers 
and make better cows. There is nothing else so 
good for a dairy-bred heifer as alfalfa hay though 
she may need to be limited somewhat in amount if 
she shows a marked tendency to overmuch body 
plumpness. 

Findings of Experiment Stations. — The New York 
station reports the results of feeding home-grown 
rations, consisting of alfalfa hay and corn silage, 
feeding four cows for sixty days, in comparison 
with a purchased feed ration for the same number 
of cows for the same length of time. These rations 
cost respectively $30.03 and $47.05, or 12.5 cents and 
19.6 cents per cow per day. This is a net gain of 
24.3 cents per hundred pounds, and a half of a cent 
per quart of milk, or a saving of 33.7 and 31.5 per 
cent., respectively, for milk and butter in favor of 
the home-grown ration. They estimate that when 



ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 389 

purcliased feeds average $25 per ton alfalfa is worth 
$16.50 to feed with corn silage. 

At the New Jersey station a test was made with 
two lots of dairy cows to determine the compara- 
tive value of alfalfa and a combination of wheat- 
bran and dry brewer's grains as a source of protein. 
In this test the alfalfa ration produced a daily yield 
of 20.8 pounds of milk and 1.06 pounds of butter, 
while the bran aoid brewer 's-grain ration produced 
a daily yield of 21.8 pounds of milk and 1.08 pounds 
of butter, only a slight difference in favor of the 
more concentrated protein foods. Bran and dried 
brewer's grains each cost $17 per ton, on which basis 
alfalfa hay proved to be worth $11.16 per ton. 

At the Maryland station alfalfa and cornmeal 
gave better results than silage and commercial 
foods. Wliere alfalfa and silage were fed with and 
without grain, the grain feeding proved the more 
economical. 

Experiments conducted at the Tennessee experi- 
ment station tend to show that one and one-half 
pounds of alfalfa will replace one pound of wheat- 
bran. 

The New Jersey station concludes that three 
pounds of alfalfa is equivalent in feeding value to 
one pound of cottonseed-meal. 

The Nebraska station compared feeding alfalfa 
hay with the feeding of prairie hay, and decided as 
a result of these tests that alfalfa produced 10 per 
cent more milk from 10 per cent less food. 



390 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The Utah station found that adding cornstalks to 
a corn and alfalfa ration gave larger returns per 
unit of dry matter than alfalfa without stalks. 

Alfalfa Meal for Dairy Coivs. — Alfalfa meal un- 
doubtedly has advantage in some ways. It is a 
saving of labor for the cow to have her alfalfa 
ground for her. If it could be ground very cheaply 
no doubt it would pay. However, the Pennsylvania 
experiment station reports adversely on alfalfa 
meal, or at least that it is no better than wheat bran, 
if it is quite as good. It is interesting to note, how- 
ever, that when wheat bran and alfalfa meal were 
rated at the same price per ton the cost of milk pro- 
duction was nearly identical. With alfalfa meal at 
$23 per ton and wheat bran at $20, corn-and-cob- 
meal at $20, and cottonseed-meal at $28 per ton, the 
grain cost of 100 pounds of milk when the cows were 
fed alfalfa was 47.1 cents; when fed wheat bran it 
was 45.3 cents. 

Assuming alfalfa meal to cost no more than bran 
the former seemed to produce milk at the lower 
grain cost per hundred pounds — 44 cents, as com- 
pared with 45.3 cents on bran. On this basis of 
comparison if wheat bran was worth $20 per ton, 
alfalfa meal was worth $21.28 per ton. 

I am not sure that it would pay to make alfalfa 
meal for home use and to feed to cows. I incline to 
believe that to dampen the hay over night, restoring 
it thus isomewhat to its natural green condition, 
would be cheaper and nearly as effective. Certainly 



ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 391 

where alfalfa liay is worth no more than $10 per 
ton it would be cheaper to feed it unground and in 
large amounts. 

Alfalfa Silage for Cows, — Already we have dis- 
cussed the making of alfalfa silage. The experiences 
of men making silage of alfalfa are varied. Some 
like the stuff, some have indifferent success in mak- 
ing it. It seems certain that immature alfalfa makes 
poor silage. The plants should be in good state of 
bloom, should be cut with dew on and raked at once 
and hurried into the silo, well cut into short lengths 
with no drying. Corn for silage, alfalfa for dry 
feed — '^\i is something to chew on," it is necessary 
to the cow, it keeps her occupied, in health and vigor. 
God speed the day when millions of acres of alfalfa 
will lie adjacent to dairy barns all over our land. 



ALFALFA FOR SHEEP. 

Alfalfa for Sheep. — All sheep love alfalfa either 
green or dry. The very nature of the animal makes 
alfalfa a suitable food for it. Sheep need foods rich 
in protein. It takes such food to make good wool, 
red flesh, blood, bone, milk. Sheep are usually 
either young and growing or else are ewes giving 
milk, or pregnant and developing within their bodies 
unborn lambs. Growth calls for protein. Milk calls 
for protein. Wool calls for protein. The protein 
requirement of the sheep is greater than with the 
cow. This much for theory. 

Essential to Profit. — The practical part of it is 
that experience has shown that sheep dearly love 
alfalfa, green or dry, and thrive exceedingly on it. 
In fact it is hard to make profit in America in sheep 
farming unless one has alfalfa hay to fall back upon. 
The best shepherds are provided with it. It is fed 
during winter time in the sheep folds ; ewes yean on 
a diet of alfalfa hay; they suckle their lambs with 
milk made chiefly from alfalfa; they go sometimes 
to pasture composed of a mixture of grasses and al- 
falfa; the lambs are fattened on alfalfa hay and 
grain. The sheep industry in America with alfalfa 
taken away would almost collapse. Millions of 
sheep are fattened mainly on alfalfa hay. It is the 
very foundation stone of the industry. 

(393) 



ALFALFA FOR SHEEP. 393 

Gracing Sheep on Alfalfa. — In another place ref- 
erence is made to> this practice and it is told how 
that alfalfa pastures destined to be fed off by sheep 
should have grasses mixed through them, as a pre- 
ventive of bloat. The secret of successful grazing 
of sheep on alfalfa seems to lie in following of a few 
well defined rules. 

First, the alfalfa ought to be fairly well grown. 
It is much better if it is near the blooming stage 
when they are turned into it. It is all wrong to 
turn them in the field in early spring, letting them 
gnaw off the buds from the crowns as they start to 
grow. That is a practice bad for the alfalfa and not 
very helpful to the sheep. 

Second, the sheep should be filled up full on green 
feed before being turned in to the alfalfa. If in ad- 
dition they are given some dry grain, provided they 
are accustomed to this, all the better. They should 
be turned in at about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morn- 
ing of a sunny day. 

Third, they should have salt before them at all 
times. It is thought that it is better to mix with 
this salt air-slaked lime, about two parts of lime to 
one of salt. I have not tested this but it has the 
weight of good authority. 

Finally, once introduced to alfalfa the sheep 
should not again be taken off of it, neither by night 
nor by day, nor in rain nor dew nor at any time till 
they are taken off for good. And when they are 
taken off and it is desired to introduce them again 



394 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

it will take even more care the second time than it 
did the first to accustom them safely to alfalfa, be- 
cause they will be ravenous for it. 

The only exception to this rule is that it may be 
advisable sometimes to allow them to go to the sheds 
for shade in the middle of the day. If this is done 
care should be taken that they are returned to the 
alfalfa field as soon as they are willing to leave the 
shade in the afternoon. 

Thus managed, the writer in an experience of sev- 
eral years lost from 2 per cent to 4 per cent of the 
flock from all causes during the pasturing season, 
partly attributable to bloat. 

Varying Practice. — Eegions differ as regards the 
bloating effect of alfalfa. In some places it seems 
to be impossible to pasture sheep on it at all. In 
other places it is an easy thing to accomplish safely. 

In Arizona and New Mexico there is now a large 
use of alfalfa pasture for lambing ewes in spring- 
time. The same is true in parts of California. I 
was told in California that along the Sacramento 
there was much loss from bloating, while along the 
San Joaquin and southward to the Imperial Valley 
there was little or no loss at all. Perhaps the alfal- 
fa along the Sacramento was more nearly unmixed 
with grasses, or was of a more succulent nature. 

In Argentina millions of sheep and lambs are fat- 
tened on alfalfa pasture, no grain being fed them. 
Usually there is a natural admixture of grasses. 

On Woodland Farm I practiced feeding lambs on 



ALFALFA FOR SHEEP. 395 

alfalfa pasture as I would pigs, with, ear corn 
thrown on a clean place on the ground. The results 
were astonishing. Lambs born in March weighed in 
late June 80 pounds and were sent fat to market, at 
long prices. 

In Kentucky some of the best early lamb growers 
practice turning the ewes and lambs on alfalfa that 
has run into blue grass considerably. The result 
is glorious lambs that bring the top prices and ripen 
weeks earlier than lambs running on common pas- 
turage. 

Eiues Get Too Fat. — The practical objection to 
alfalfa pasturage is that it makes ewes too fat to 
breed well. To remedy this one ought, if he sees 
such condition approaching, take them away and 
turn them to rather poor grass for a time. I feel 
certain that I have lost the use of a good many ewes 
from barrenness through this effect, as they became 
fat, ready for the butcher and not ready for the ram. 
One remedy would naturally be to send them as they 
became fat to market, but this is not practicable in a 
pure-bred flock. 



HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 

Ewes in winter time need little else than alfalfa 
hay to maintain them in splendid condition for 
dropping a crop of strong lambs. Thus treated they 
will come in with plenty of milk. There is usually 
little danger of their consuming too much alfalfa 
hay after being safe in lamb. It is well, however, to 
feed some other food, not so rich, in connection with 
the alfalfa hay. 

To give a run to blue grass or other pasture, and 
a little of some other sort of hay, if the ewes will 
eat it, or to give bright corn stover in connection 
with good alfalfa hay, is good practice. Sometimes 
ewes may be better off for a trifle of grain when 
they are eating alfalfa hay. If they are all ri^ht, 
in good health and condition when winter sets in 
and are afterward liberally fed with alfalfa no grain 
will be needed, and in truth it may be a detriment. 

Feeding Value of Hay. — Illustrative of the fact 
that alfalfa alone is a rich enough feed we present 
the following table from the Kansas experiment sta- 
tion, giving some comparative values of alfalfa and 
other well known feed stuffs. The figures are for 
the digestible matter found in the various feeds. 
These figures were gotten from the results of feed- 
ing experiments at that station : 

(396) 



HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 



397 



Alfalfa hay, cut ten per cent in bloom. 

Alfalfa hay, cut half in bloom 

AKalfa hay, cut in full bloom 

Red clover hay 

Timothy hay 

Prairie hay 

Com fodder 

Kafir-corn fodder 

Wheat bran 



Protein. 


Carbo- 
hydrates. 


13.24 


39.26 


11.90 


40.26 


10.43 


43.17 


6.58 


35.35 


2.89 


43.72 


0.61 


46.90 


1.98 


33.16 


3.22 


48.72 


12.01 


41.23 



Pat. 



0.39 
0.69 
1.66 
1.43 
1.97 
0.57 
1.15 
2.87 



Study of this table shows plainly why it is that 
ewes well fed with alfalfa hay are well nourished. 
Ewes eating alfalfa hay during pregnancy have ud- 
ders well filled with milk when the lambs are born. 
This makes the shepherd ^s cares light at that anx- 
ious time. Ewes suckling their lambs will milk well 
on alfalfa hay with a trifle of grain in addition. 
Lambs born in winter will, with bright alfalfa hay 
and a ration of cracked corn, develop rapidly and 
make prime lambs for the fancy ^^hot house'' trade. 

Lamb Feeding at Woodland. — The writer was 
perhaps the first man east of Colorado to begin fat- 
tening lambs with alfalfa as the hay ration. His 
earlier practice was to feed timothy hay, shredded- 
corn stover, oat straw and clover hay. To balance 
these fodders, deficient in protein, he bought wheat 
bran and oilmeal. The result was satisfactory, ex- 
cept that the cost of making baby mutton was ex- 
cessive. These lambs were fed from November un- 
til April, being bought from western ranges or from 
farms. About the average cost during the early 
90 's was $6.25 per hundred pounds for the gain put 
on. Concentrates rich in protein grew steadily 
dearer and lambs cheaper, so that it seemed that 



398 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the end of his lamb feeding was near, when he 
turned his attention to producing an abundance of 
alfalfa. He found that as good lambs could be 
made with alfalfa hay and ear corn only as he had 
been making with shelled corn or ground corn and 
oilmeal and wheat bran. The alfalfa-fed lambs 
developed a little slower, but made the gain much 
cheaper and with a lessened death rate. For some 
years the cost of producing lamb mutton on alfalfa 
hay and ear corn averaged about $3.50 per hundred 
pounds. In recent years, owing to the advanced 
cost of corn and alfalfa hay, the cost has increased 
to about $4.50 or $5 per hundred, making no al- 
lowance for labor. 

It is the present practice to give the lambs a 
longer feeding time, buying them in November, giv- 
ing little but alfalfa for a month, then a trifle of 
oorn, gradually increasing until, in March, they 
may get nearly as much corn as they will eat. At 
no times are they fed all the corn they will eat, nor 
more alfalfa than they will eat clean, saving that 
some coarser stems are allowed to be rejected. In 
April or early in May the lambs are sold and they 
have topped the markets for years, and are watched 
for by buyers in Buffalo. 

The manure made by these lambs, fed under shel- 
ter, is returned to the land where corn is. to be 
planted, usually an old alfalfa sod. After one crop 
of corn, or at most two crops, the land is sowed back 
to alfalfa again. This manure is very rich and by 



HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 399 

this system of farming the productiveness of the 
place is steadily and rapidly growing. 

Comparative Value of the Hay. — Numerous tests 
have been made at experiment stations of alfalfa 
hay compared with wild hay or timothy hay or some 
other roughage for sheep and lambs. In every case 
great superiority for alfalfa has been shown. Thus 
Burnett found that lambs eating alfalfa hay and 
shelled corn made 52 per cent greater gains than 
those fed corn and prairie hay. Similar results were 
had in Wyoming. 

Feeding Operations in the West. — It is in Color- 
ado, western Kansas and Nebraska that one sees 
alfalfa feeding in successful operation in a large 
way. There sheep and lamb feeding is an art and a 
science. Alfalfa is of course the cornerstone of it. 
On the excellence of their alfalfa depends all their 
chance of profit and success. In truth the aim is to 
feed the sheep or lambs as much alfalfa as possible, 
and thus economize as far as may be in grain, which 
is often the costly part of the ration. 

Methods in Use. — The method of feeding is ad- 
mirably simple. As a rule no sheds are used in Col- 
orado since no rain falls in winter and not much 
snow. Yards are erected in somewhat sheltered 
places and the fences so built that sheep can thrust 
their heads through and eat alfalfa hay which is 
drawn from the ricks directly to the yards and piled 
against the fence. From time to time it is pushed 
up to them as they consume it. Grain is fed in 



400 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

troughs. Oolomdo lambs usually top tlie Chicago 
and Omaha markets. The excellence of their mut- 
ton is very great. Alfalfa does it, with a proper 
amount of corn. 

After the sheep are fed there is left a tremendous 
amount of manure. Once this was allowed to go to 
waste. Eecently it has been found profitable to haul 
it to the fields. In western Nebraska it is often put 
on the old alfalfa meadows, where it has been found 
very beneficial. 

Small Waste in Feeding. — There is no especial 
care necessary in feeding sheep or lambs on alfalfa 
hay. When hard frosts late in the season catch the 
alfalfa it is sometimes injurious to sheep after being 
made into hay. Ordinarily no harm ever comes to 
a sheep from having as much alfalfa as it can eat. 
It has been learned, however, that sheep may eat 
their hay up nearly clean, rejecting only the most 
woody portion, and thrive nearly as well as though 
wasting all but the finer stems and leaves. Less 
waste is found where the animals can thrust their 
heads clear into the racks, or through the fences, to 
reach the hay than when they must pull it through 
narrow cracks in the rack. The writer makes his 
alfalfa feeding racks with vertical slits 7^' wide. 
Through these sheep thrust their heads and keep 
them there while eating. 

It is not true economy with fattening sheep or 
lambs to require them to eat their hay too close; 
better gains are had when they consume large 







'S^ifrri^'^r^^^'-Ci:^^^ 



'Wi'M 




PORTABLE HAY-FEEDING RACKS. 



HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 401 

amounts. There is no danger of their eating too 
much, as there is with mature horses. When sheep 
reject coarse stems they may be fed to horses get- 
ting grain with good results. 

Maintaining Fertility. — Hardly any other sort of 
farming is so good for land as alfalfa farming, with 
sheep to consume the hay. Sheep make good ma- 
nure. It is easily saved and applied. Wherever it 
is used bounteous crops are assured. In the eastern 
states where sheep are fed mostly under cover, the 
manure is especially valuable. It is said that ''one 
can not eat his cake and have it too." This is not 
true of an alfalfa farm when the hay is fed to sheep 
or lambs and the manure put back. One has his 
fertility left after enjoying the profits of sheep 
feeding. 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 

There is rotation in farm practices as well 
as in crops. Take the hog for example. Origi- 
nally it was a forest-dwelling animal, consuming 
herbage of all sorts, grasses, roots, whatever it could 
get, and mainly coarse herbage. Later it was taken 
by man and shut up in pens or yards and fed grain. 
Under such treatment all sorts of difficulties devel- 
oped, hogs became subject to disease, lost their pro- 
lificacy, became unnatural mothers, eating their 
offspring. Thus the hog fell into disrepute, got a 
reputation for unhealthf nines s and natural bad 
habits. Now, thanks to alfalfa, the hog is resuming 
its rightful place as a grazing animal, is grown large- 
ly in the fields in the winter-time, eats coarse stuff, 
which it ought to do, consumes alfalfa hay. The re- 
sult is that in thousands of herds cholera has been 
banished, the hogs have become resistant because of 
their feed and healthful way of living, litters are 
larger, the sows do not eat their pigs and the cost 
of making pork has been reduced one-half. All this 
thanks to alfalfa feeding and alfalfa grazing. 

The Hog a Grazing Animal. — The truth is the hog 
is by nature a grazing animal. "While not a ruminant 
like the cow and sheep yet it has capacity to take care 
of a good deal of coarse herbage and is better for 
having it. There must be a certain amount of bulk in 
its food to distend the stomach and intestines in or- 

(402) 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 403 

der to keep the animal in health. If its intestines 
are vigorous then it may resist cholera germs, even 
if they are taken in. The importance of this point 
can not be over estimated. Millions of germs are 
about us, germs of all sorts. All animals take them 
in continually. When there is a vigorous, healthful 
intestinal tract these germs sometimes, even the most 
virulent, are either digested or passed off, the animal 
remaining unscathed. When there is a weak and 
sickly intestinal tract the germ finds lodgment and 
disease follows. There can hardly be any other ex- 
planation of the fact that cholera seldom troubles 
hogs rightly managed and kept in summer on alfalfa 
pasture, in winter in part on alfalfa hay. 

Fine Alfalfa Porh. — This matter is so essential 
that I here present part of a paper read by one of 
the Government inspectors before the Kansas State 
Breeders' meeting at the Kansas agricultural col- 
lege: 

As these alfalfa hogs came down the alley to the scales, they 
were certainly hogs for the packer, raised at a profit — thrifty 
and ready to yield good-grade pork, for a good price was realized. 
You could notice that they were well up on their expanded feet; 
their height, length, and bones all rounded out with even fat, 
covered with a glossy, glistening, heavy coat of hair, and keen 
eyes alert. Their backs were straight, broad and well curved 
into long, deep sides that had plump, pointed even-shaped hams 
at one end and arched shoulders at the other. 

On post-mortem we did not find a single parasite in livers, 
lungs, kidneys or intestines, as we do in hogs grown on corn and 
cereals. Their lungs remained expanded, that is, inflated, when 
cast down in the gut chute; did not collapse, and were of a per- 
fect pink. Their stomachs were larger and did not recoil or con- 
tract readily, and same was observed of the whole intestinal tube. 

The man who pulled the intestines from the ruffle fat for cas- 



404 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ings said, "They are as tough as clothes-lines and as large as 
broomsticks." The bum-gut cutter said that "it seemed like tak- 
ing out automobile tires, and I have not cut or torn a single one, 
they are so tough." The caul fat and ruffle fat after guts were 
drawn off were much heavier than the average in corresponding 
corn-fed hogs. The leaf-lard pullers and ham facers complained 
about so much fat and weight in lifting the leaf out, and it was 
more bound down to the inside of the abdominal walls. The split- 
ter of backbones and sawyer of the shanks said "it was like cutting 
iron or railroad ties." All bones were bones, large and strong. 
The carcasses were symmetrically filled out like barrels, having 
funnel legs, and all front feet were stiff and rigid, straight out, 
while in other hogs the front feet are generally limp and dangling. 
Their skins were well filled, shining and smooth as the human. 
When I read this sentence to Mr. Hodgins he laughed and said: 
"Don't credit it to alfalfa, for we dip our hogs every two weeks 
in two or three inches of crude oil and never know what lice, 
mange or scurf are, nor hog-cholera so far, while our neighbors 
on all sides of us have had it and laid it to tankage. We fed the 
same tankage they did, for we bought it from the same parties 
and at the same time," Their bodies were solid and the meat was 
of that marbled appearance of lean and fat, for the fat of an al- 
falfa hog is whiter, and here is where we get the two strips of 
lean in the bacon — rustling for a living makes muscle. 

Alfalfa Pasture for Hogs. — No better plant has 
been found for bog pasture than alfalfa, nor will the 
bogs greatly injure tbe alfalfa if rigbtly managed. 
In any event, even if they do injure it, it is well to 
provide it, plowing it when seriously hurt and re- 
sowing. Certain points of management, however, 
will avoid nearly all injury. 

Do Not Overstock. — The pasture ought to be 
larger than the hogs need. Tbe number of hogs 
that a pasture will carry varies greatly, accord- 
ing to the size of the pigs and the quality of the 
pasture. It may be said that an acre will carry 
nicely about 1,200 to 1,600 pounds of swine, accord- 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 405 

ing to its condition and the way the hogs are man- 
aged. That would mean 8 pigs weighing 150 
pounds or fewer of larger animals. Not that these 
pigs would consume all the alfalfa in the field ; it is 
not desired that they should. It will be mown two 
or three times and the surplus made into hay. This 
keeps the alfalfa vigorous and gives a good deal of 
hay. It also helps the hogs by giving them a fresh 
bite as it comes up again. 

It is not well to mow off an entire pasture at one 
time as it leaves nothing for the hogs to eat for 
some days. 

It will not do to put in enough hogs to eat a pas- 
ture down close as it destroys the alfalfa after a 
time, and one can never get a maximum return from 
land treated in that way. Alfalfa must have a 
chance to grow, and if it is kept nibbled down close 
all the time it cannot possibly grow. Thus instead 
of getting the most out of a pasture by stocking 
heavily one gets the least out of it. This is a very 
common error made by beginners in alfalfa growing. 
Make your alfalfa pastures wide and mow them 
regularly. Thus treated the animals get the most 
possible out of them and the pastures themselves 
will live for a long time. 

Wait for Warm Weather. — Do not turn hogs in 
alfalfa pastures until warm weather comes. The bru- 
tal disregard for the young, tender plants displayed 
by some would-be alfalfa growers is most exasperat- 
ing. Perhaps it comes from their habit of turning 



406 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

hogs on old blue grass pastures in winter or early 
spring. Alfalfa is in no sense like blue grass. Keep 
the hogs carefully shut out of it until it is at least a 
foot high in spring. 

Do not leave the hogs in pasture late in the fall, 
either, especially if you live east of the Missouri 
Eiver. To pasture alfalfa late in the fall in all the 
eastern country will very greatly damage it if not 
destroy it. And never, on any account, let the hogs 
step foot on it in winter time. 

Alfalfa not a Balanced Food. — ^Again, much dis- 
appointment comes from use of alfalfa in the wrong 
way. Hogs will not make much gain on alfalfa 
pasture alone. They will gain -about one-half a 
pound a day or less with only alfalfa and water. 
With a little corn every day in addition to the al- 
falfa hay they will gain two pounds or even two and 
one-half pounds daily. Nearly all the corn ^^ sticks 
to the ribs ' ^ when hogs are fed on alfalfa pasture. 

It is unreasonable to expect hogs to fatten on al- 
falfa pasture alone, or even to expect them to make 
all their growth on alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa is ex- 
ceedingly rich in protein, but is deficient in fat and 
carbohydrates. Why can not the hogs make up on 
grass what the alfalfa lacks? Well, because a hog 
has too small a stomach, is not a ruminant, does not 
chew its cud. It wants a part of its ration in some 
condensed form. The alfalfa gives health and vigor 
and makes growth, but it needs the aid of com. 
There is no other grain so good for feeding with 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 407 

alfalfa. Tliey are happily wedded together, corn 
and alfalfa. 

Grain Needed. — It is as unwise to feed either corn 
or alfalfa alone to hogs as it would be to send to a 
mason bricks alone or mortar alone. He cannot 
build a wall without bricks and mortar in right pro- 
portions. So the hog cannot build without corn and 
alfalfa in right amounts. One can trust him to eat 
the alfalfa, feeding it freely; there will not be too 
much consumed. He can not let the hog choose how 
much corn he will eat because he will eat too much 
for greatest profit. The corn should be limited, the 
alfalfa unlimited. Thus come cheapest gains and 
most profit. 

Amount of Grain. — How much grain when on al- 
falfa? The Nebraska experiment station has reached 
this conclusion: 

A light grain ration is not the most economical for growing 
pigs, unless under peculiar circumstances, when alfalfa is abun- 
dant, grain very high in price, and market conditions warrant 
holding the hogs. It seems probable that two or more pounds of 
corn d.aily for each hundred weight of hogs is more profitable 
than a lighter ration. 

Mature hogs, thin in flesh, may be expected to gain about half 
a pound per head daily on alfalfa without grain. Mature hogs, 
fed corn in a dry lot while being fattened, required nearly one- 
half more grain to produce 100 pounds gain, and gave a daily 
profit of 3 cents less per hog than similar hogs running on alfalfa 
pasture. Alfalfa may be fed with profit to growing or fattening 
hogs in almost any form so long as it does not make up too large 
a proportion of the ration. When cut (chopped or chaffed) and 
fed as one-quarter of the ration with ground corn it materially 
reduced the cost of gains and increased the profits. 

Value of Alfalfa Pasture. — Certainly this varies 
according to the productiveness of the pasture, the 



408 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

management and the price of hogs. It may reach 
anywhere between $10 and $35 per acre. The Kan- 
sas experiment station realized $24.10 from an acre 
of alfalfa pasture. 

In 1907 C. E. Quinn, a special agent of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, investigated the pasturing of 
alfalfa with hogs in the west, giving especial atten- 
tion to conditions in Kansas and Oklahoma. The 
report is found in full in Farmers ' Bulletin 331. It 
is so pertinent here that we quote freely : 

During the past summer (1907) about 150 of the most suc- 
cessful swine growers and pork producers of Kansas and Okla- 
homa were interviewed on the subject of the crops used for feed. 
In Southern Oklahoma along the river valleys and in northern 
Oklahoma and southern Kansas the farmers are favored with a 
soil and climate that makes it possible to produce pork very 
cheaply. The mildness of the climate makes it unnecessary to 
build as expensive shelters for hogs in winter as are required 
farther north, and the short open winters make it possible to 
furnish pasture during a greater portion of the year, thus les- 
sening the amount of grain which it is necessary to feed. The 
main pasture crops for hogs in this region are alfalfa, wheat, 
oats, and rye, ranking in importance in the order named. 

It is the testimony of 95 per cent of the farmers interviewed in 
this region that there is no better forage crop for hogs than 
alfalfa, where it can be grown successfully. 

Amount of pasturage. — As to the amount of pasturage or the 
number of hogs alfalfa will carry per acre without injury to the 
crop, the estimates given by farmers very considerably, depend- 
ing on the kind of soil, the fertility of the land, and the size of 
the hogs pastured. The following, however, is a safe average esti- 
mate as given by conservative men who have had much experience. 
River valley and creek bottom land well set in alfalfa will carry 
from 15 to 20 head per acre of 50 to 125 pound hogs. Upland of 
fair average fertility will support from 8 to 10 head of the same 
kind of hogs. There are fields that have supported 25 head per 
acre all through the season for a number of years and are still 
In good condition, and there are other fields that will not furnish 
pasture for more than 5 head per acre; but these are extremes. 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 409 

When a field is used only for pasture it is better to divide it into 
several lots and move the hogs from one to the other as occa- 
sion requires. 

Causes of Failure. — Those who have failed with it as pasture 
owe their failure to two causes: The first is that the alfalfa has 
been pastured before it has become well rooted. Young alfalfa 
is too tender a plant to stand severe treatment except under very- 
favorable circumstances. There are a few farmers who have pas- 
tured it the same year it was sown and the alfalfa has survived; 
but this was on rich heavy loam soil, usually creek bottom or 
river valley land with water not far below the surface, and the 
season was very favorable. Ordinarily alfalfa should not be pas- 
tured until the second year, and better still not until the third 
year if it is desired to keep the field as permanent pasture. 

The second cause of failure with alfalfa is heavy pasturing and 
lack of judgment in pasturing in unfavorable seasons. A good 
many farmers have sown a small piece of alfalfa, and then, 
because it has grown rapidly and all kinds of stock are fond of 
it, they have turned all the stock on the farm on it and have 
wondered why their alfalfa was killed out. Others pasture re- 
gardless of whether the ground is muddy or whether the season 
is dry and hot. In either case heavy pasturing is very likely to 
cause the alfalfa to be killed out. 

Length of Pasture Season. — The length of the season during 
which this pasture is furnished also varies. Alfalfa is ready for 
pasture on the average from the middle of April in southern Okla- 
homa to the middle of May in northern Kansas. It is not best 
to pasture earlier, as the young alfalfa has not the start it 
should have for heavy pasturing, nor has it the substance in the 
plant. When not pastured too early, it will furnish feed at the 
rate mentioned during nearly the whole season until October 
in the northern part and November in the southern part of the 
section referred to. In some years the pasture season will con- 
tinue a month later in the autumn, owing to the rainfall and the 
lateness of cool weather. In some seasons, if the summer is un- 
usually dry and hot, the pasture will become short; but usually 
pasture for the number of hogs mentioned can be depended on for 
about seven months of the year at the southern limit of the ter- 
ritory named and for about five months at the northern limit. 
This rule will apply to other sections of the country having the 
same climatic conditions as Oklahoma and Kansas. 

While many farmers pasture alfalfa fields to their full capacity, 
in some sections, especially in northern Kansas, it is customary 
to run about half as many hogs as the alfalfa fields will support. 



410 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

This practice permits the cutting of the usual number of crops 
of hay, though the yield of hay is of course reduced. 

Food Cliaracter of Alfalfa. — Alfalfa not only furnishes a great 
amount of pasture, but it is of a character that goes to make 
bone and muscle. It belongs to the leguminous family of plants, 
as do the clovers, the cowpea, the field pea, the soybean, and the 
vetches, and, while it is furnishing this valuable food, it is add- 
ing fertility to the land. Either alfalfa pasture or alfalfa hay, 
with corn, forms very nearly a balanced ration for animals; and, 
while it is better to have a grain ration fed with it to hogs as well 
as other animals, a healthier, thriftier hog can be raised on alfalfa 
alone than on corn alone. Many instances are found where hogs 
have been raised on alfalfa alone. One Oklahom.a farmer mar- 
keted in December, 1905, 61 head of spring pigs eight months 
old that averaged 171 pounds, which had run from the time they 
were little pigs with their mothers on 15 acres of alfalfa without 
any grain. They sold on the market for 5i/i cents a pound. 
This made the cash value of the alfalfa pasture about ?38.35 per 
acre. As will be seen, this is a light pasturing, as there were only 
about 4 pigs per acre besides the brood sows. 

Feeding Practices and Actual Results. — As already stated, it is 
much better economy to furnish a grain ration with the pasture, 
as it results in better gains and better product. One man esti- 
mates that it takes from one-half to one-third less corn on alfalfa 
pasture than on a straight grain ration to make a hog ready for 
market. Many let the hogs run on alfalfa until about six 
months old, by which time they reach a weight of 75 to 125 
pounds, feeding just a little grain; then they feed heavily for 
about two months and sell the hogs at eight months old weigh- 
ing 200 to 225 pounds. One farm.er, who raises about a thousand 
hogs a year and who in one year sold $11,200 worth of hogs, 
makes a practice of raising his hogs on alfalfa pasture until about 
eight months old, feeding one ear of corn per head daily. He 
then feeds heavily on corn for a month or two and sells at an 
average weight of 200 to 225 pounds. Another man feeds all the 
corn and slop the pigs will clean up, all the while running them 
on alfalfa pasture, and sells at six to eight months old at weights 
of 250 to 300 pounds. Another, who raises about 1,000 head a 
year, feeds all the corn the pigs will eat, beginning shortly after 
weaning and continuing until the hogs are sold at ten to eleven 
months old, averaging about 275 pounds. 

Still another farmer, from weaning time (two months old) 
until eight months old, feeds the pigs nothing but dry corn on 
alfalfa pasture, averaging about one-half gallon of corn (3% 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 411 

pounds) a day per head. At the end of eight months he sells at 
an average weight of 250 pounds. The quantity of corn fed is 
about 111/4 bushels per head. Figuring at the average price of 
corn in this locality, 35 cents, and the price received for pork, 
514 cents, the following results show the cost of growing pork 
on this farm and the value of alfalfa pasture: 

Value of 250-pound hogr, at 53^ cents $13.75 

Value of pig at weaning, 50 pounds, at 53^ cents 2. 75 

Gain from pasture and grain $11.00 

Cost of 113^ bushels of corn, at 35 cents 3.93 

Value of pasture per head pastured 7.07 

Now, compare these results with those of a man who had to 
depend on other pasture crops than alfalfa. He estimates that it 
will take 15 bushels of corn on wheat, oats, and rye pasture to 
raise and fatten a hog so it will weigh 240 pounds at nine months 
old, besides the pasture and slop. At the price of corn men- 
tioned, 35 cents a bushel, and with hogs at 514 cents a pound, 
note the cost of producing pork on this farm: 

Value of 240-pound hog, at 5% cents, $13.20 

Value of pig at weaning, 50 pounds, at 53^ cents 2.75 

Gain from pasture and grain $10.45 

Cost of 15 bushels of corn, at 35 cents 5 25 

Value of pasture per head pastured 5.20 

The pasture on this farm will not support more than half 
as many head per acre as alfalfa. Its value is only $5.20 per 
head, against $7.07 per head for alfalfa pasture on the other 
farm. 

The experiences of these men are sufficient to show the value 
of alfalfa pasture alone, its greater value when grain is fed in 
connection, and that it is an important factor in economic pork 
production. 

Alfalfa Hay. — ^While alfalfa pasture has been found to be very 
valuable for hogs, the hay as a part ration for winter is scarcely 
less important. Throughout the region referred to the farmers 
are feeding the hay to hogs in winter. The hay has been found 
to be especially valuable for brood sows before farrowing. Where 
it is fed during the winter only a small ration of grain is nec- 
essary to keep the sows in good flesh and in healthy condition. 
Sows thus fed also farrow good litters of strong, healthy pigs. 

Feeding Methods. — Many feed the hay by throwing it on the 
ground in forkfuls; others have made low racks in which the 
hay is placed, where the hogs can feed like cattle or sheep. 
The hay is usually fed dry. The leaves are more readily eaten 
by the hogs than the stems, and they contain more of the nutri- 



412 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tive value of the plant. For these reason some farmers save 'che 
last cutting of hay for the hogs because it is more relished. It 
is eaten up cleaner, as the stems are not so woody. Sometimes 
the hay is cut up fine, wet, and mixed with other feed, and 
sometimes it is fed ground, as there are now alfalfa mills 
scattered throughout the alfalfa regions. But it is very doubt- 
ful whether this extra expense will pay, unless it he for a ration 
for young pigs. 

Experiences of Farmers. — To avoid the expense of cutting or 
grinding, some farmers in order to get the hay all eaten have 
soaked it in water and fed it. This has proved very satisfactory 
where tried. One Oklahoma farmer carried his hogs through a 
winter by feeding them alfalfa leaves soaked in hot water for 
one day and the next day shorts mixed with the pulp and water. 
He feeds much alfalfa hay to his hogs and is very successful with 
them. He puts the last cutting in shock as soon as wilted, and 
thus cures it without bleaching and feeds it to his hogs. An- 
other farmer carried his entire herd of hogs through the winter 
by feeding them the pulp of alfalfa hay after soaking it in water 
over night. He also gave them the water to drink. This was 
all the feed they had during the winter, and they were in 
good flesh in the spring, with smooth, glossy coats of hair. A 
Kansas farmer was feeding a bunch of 50 fall pigs on corn. 
During the winter they got "off feed" and were not thrifty. 
He reduced the corn and gave a ration of two-thirds chopped 
alfalfa hay and one-third corn meal, the two soaked to- 
gether. The hogs began to do better, and a little later he changed 
the ration to one-third alfalfa and two-thirds corn. The results 
were very satisfactory, and the cost of feed was reduced from 
$15 a month on corn to $9 a month on alfalfa and corn. So 
alfalfa hay, as well as pasture, has a very important use on a 
hog farm. 

Alfalfa Hay for Brood Sows. — To show the importance of al- 
falfa hay in a system of feeding, the practice of the farmers 
around North Platte, Neb., and elsewhere may be mentioned. 
The alfalfa hay is ground up fine or else fed whole with corn in 
the proportion of about 5 pounds of alfalfa to 1 pound of corn. 
This is fed to the brood sows during the winter, and they come 
through in excellent condition on very cheap feed. In many 
sections alfalfa hay is worth about $5 a ton on the farm. One 
ton of alfalfa and about eight bushels of corn will keep three 
brood sows 130 days, or nearly the whole winter. The hogs so 
kept farrow pigs that are remarkable for their vigor and size. 

Vieivs of the Nebraska Station. — Prof. H. E. 



ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 413 

Smith, of the Nebraska station thus approves the 
use of alfalfa with hogs : 

I cannot recommend too strongly the feeding of good alfalfa 
hay to any kind of swine. It not only furnishes protein, or 
flesh-making material, which is deficient in corn, but it tends to 
offset the heavy character of a ration consisting of corn alone. 
Some scatter the hay on the ground, but it is better to construct 
some sort of a rack through which the hogs can pull the hay 
without trampling too much under foot. If the feeder has a cut- 
ting machine it might be well to cut the alfalfa and mix it with 
the grain. For fattening purposes do not make this cut alfalfa 
more than one-fourth of the entire grain ration by weight, and 
I woujid be inclined to believe tha-" one-fifth alfalfa would be 
better. 

At the Nebraska station also Burnett fed alfalfa 
leaves in comparison with wheat middlings to grow- 
ing pigs. The pigs having the alfalfa leaves made 
the better gain. In Illinois A. J. Lovejoy cuts al- 
falfa very fine, almost as fine as meal, and mixes it 
with corn meal, wetting all and feeding to pigs with 
first-rate results. Instances might be multiplied 
almost infinitely, but one more must suffice. Ex- 
Gov. W. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin, a man who has 
done very much to introduce alfalfa culture into 
eastern America, carries his brood sows through the 
winter with alfalfa hay and skimmilk from his dairy. 
The sows come through in splendid condition, with 
no unnatural or depraved appetites, farrow splendid 
pigs and have much milk for them. 

The Pork Industry Prominent. — -The hog occu- 
pies indeed a commanding position in American agri- 
culture. The value of the hog in America in Jan- 
uary, 1909, was near $356,000,000. To grow these 
hogs costs American farmers, the writer estimates, 



414 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

$300,000,000. With alfalfa to help cheapen the pro- 
duction at least $100,000,000 may be saved. 

This is not nearly all the story, either. Hog farm- 
ing is not usually a type of farming adapted to soil- 
building or even conserving of fertility. Hog farm- 
ing usually means a farm devoted to corn and a few 
small muddy yards where all the corn is dumped to 
be devoured by the imprisoned swine. Thus in these 
small yards accumulates all the fertility of the farm. 
The net result is weeds, jimpson weed, dog fennel, 
all sorts of vile things, while the fields grow steadily 
poorer and poorer as there is nothing to go back 
from the hog feeding. Now with the use of alfalfa 
and feeding much of the corn in the alfalfa fields the 
land is renewed, its fertility increased, it carries 
more stock and becomes more easily tilled. The dif- 
ference between alfalfa farming with hogs and hog 
farming without alfalfa is that where alfalfa is lack- 
ing the land is steadily destroyed, where it is had it 
is steadily built. 



ALFALFA FOR POULTRY. 

All sorts of fowls love alfalfa, green or dry. In 
truth they love it not wisely but too well for the al- 
falfa when it is a young thing, and unless kept away 
from it will destroy it. After it has become estab- 
lished they will not usually injure it unless the al- 
falfa is a small patch near the poultry runs. It is 
well to keep them away from the field when the al- 
falfa is coming up as they will peck the seedlings 
and destroy every one at a bite. 

Giving the Run of the Field. — Poultry having a 
run to an alfalfa field will need very little additional 
feed. Indeed on "Woodland Farm it is the custom 
to grow a hundred, sometimes two or three hundred 
guineas that simply live half wild in the alfalfa 
fields. They subsist entirely on alfalfa leaves, in- 
sects and what they find wild. They nest as they like 
and of course a great many -of the eggs are lost, 
since they lay sometimes a hundred in the one nest 
and the mower often smashes many of them. 

Poultry having alfalfa lays exceedingly well. In 
winter time all fowls love the alfalfa leaves and will 
even eat the smaller stems. If the alfalfa is cut very 
fine they will eat nearly all of it. Certainly only 
the best alfalfa hay should be offered the fowls. In 
any barn where alfalfa is fed there can be secured 
bags of alfalfa leaves and fine stems that the fowls 



416 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will eat with great satisfaction. Some poultry keep- 
ers advise wetting the leaves, or pouring boiling 
water over them, which makes them freshen up 
amazingly; others think as good results come from 
feeding them dry. 

Meal and Cut Hay. — Alfalfa meal is admirable 
for poultry and egg production. Where alfalfa is 
not grown and the hay is therefore unavailable 
doubtless the meal is a profitable source of vege- 
table food and protein. It stimulates egg production 
and is thought to have some influence in making the 
eggs fertile. 

For home use, where alfalfa hay is available it 
is well to cut the hay in very short lengths, the 
shorter the better probably, choosing very early 
cut, tender and well cured hay for this purpose. 
This will doubtless do nearly or quite as well as 
alfalfa meal, and the leaves from the feeding barn 
will do best of all since they are most digestible of 
any part of the alfafa plant. 

It is noticeable that When alfalfa is available in 
winter egg production is greatly stimulated. 



MAKING ALFALFA MEAL. 

Within recent years a considerable business has 
sprung up in the West of making alfalfa meal. 
Several plans are adopted for making this meal. 
The hay must first be carefully selected. Only well 
cured bright green hay is available. With some pro- 
cesses this must afterward be kiln-dried before it is 
put in the mill. It is then ground to a fine powder. 
Another machine makes meal of the dry hay without 
kiln drying. This meal is not so fine a powder as 
the first mentioned. A third type simply cuts the 
alfalfa exceedingly fine with a modification of an 
ordinary hay-cutter. This is the most rapid in oper- 
ation of any machine and the resultant product 
seems to be as digestible as any. It is not exactly 
meal, however, and is often sold baled, a lock of 
alfalfa hay being placed at each end of the bale. 
This seems the most practicable way of handling it 
for dairy feed. The fine ground meal, however, may 
sell more readily in the market, though it is doubt- 
ful if it is any better as a feed. 

Meal and Bran. — Prof. H. M. Cotterell says that 
in one test where alfalfa meal was fed in compari- 
son with wheat bran, giving the same weights, the 
alfalfa meal made 141 lbs. of milk, the wheat bran 
100 lbs. The Pennsylvania experiment station on 
the other hand reported that alfalfa meal gave no 

better results than wheat bran, yet with alfalfa meal 

am 



418 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and wheat bran rated at equal costs the meal made 
slightly the cheaper milk. 

Difference in samples might readily account for 
this difference. Much meal is doubtless made of 
very coarse, woody hay, cut when over ripe. This 
would naturally make less milk than meal from early 
cut hay. I believe alfalfa meal to be a good product, 
but do not think it ought to be rated above wheat 
bran in feeding value or selling price. 

Easy of Transportation. — Probably the chief good 
of alfalfa meal is to carry alfalfa to towns and cities 
and regions where alfalfa is not grown. There re- 
mains to be discovered evidence that it would pay 
the farmer to grind his own alfalfa into meal for 
use on his own farm, unless it might possibly be for 
pig feeding in winter time, and even there the evi- 
dence is in favor of using the alfalfa in its natural 
form or cut very fine. 

Alfalmo is a product of alfalfa meal and mo- 
lasses. One who has observed the very great use of 
molasses feeds in England must conclude that there 
is a field for them in America, and that this alfalmo, 
if honestly made, as it seems now to be, has a future 
before it as a fattening ration for cattle and horses, 
perhaps for pigs as part of the ration. Should we 
be able to introduce alfalfa meal into England there 
would be opened a wide field and a great market. 
Perhaps we will need all our alfalfa hay at home for 
some years; perhaps such a market would in th© 
long x\m r^boTOd to our injury, 



PLOWING ALFALFA SOD. 

A well set alfalfa sod is a hard thing to plow. It 
takes power and time to break it. And yet, for a 
given amount of energy applied in plo^wing one will 
get much greater returns in an alfalfa sod than he 
will with any other sort of plowing, so he need not 
feel aggrieved at the resistance of the alfalfa roots. 

The longer the alfalfa has stood the larger and 
tougher the roots are. Alfalfa only a year or two 
old plows not much unlike red clover sod. It is the 
old field tha't gives one a tussle. To attempt to 
plow that with a dull plow, a pooT team and broken 
harness is to waste one's energy. 

The Right Way. — On the other hand, rightly gone 
at alfalfa sod is a delight to plow. One needs a 
good team^ three heavy horses, a first-class plow 
(preferably a walking plow, not a sulky or rid- 
ing plow, which rarely is successful in alfalfa sod). 
He wants two good shares and then to keep one of 
them in the blacksmith's shop most of the time, 
being sharpened; a sober, intelligent man holding 
the plow, with a file in his boot leg, then plowing 
alfalfa sod is as easy a job as one would care for, 
only it is rather slow work. We plow in the fall 
usually or early winter. The field that is to be 
plowed is mowed late. It is as well to save that last 
growth, and it will weaken the xmi% somewbat to 



420 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

have it cut off. We plow alfalfa sod deep. Why! 
Because the roots cut off easier down eight inches 
or more. It is true that they will grow again, that 
is, the upper part will grow, and your field in the 
spring may look almost as though it had not been 
plowed. Do not let that fact trouble you. When cul- 
tivation begins the alfalfa will soon disappear. This 
is assuming that the field is to go to corn or potatoes 
or some other cultivated crop. If sown to oats it is 
likely that the alfalfa would grow up in them pretty 
thick and maybe trouble in the harvest. But oats 
lodge in an alfalfa sod anyway, so they do not count. 

One finds that the soil itself is loose and easily 
made friable after alfalfa has grown upon it, so he 
can plow it deeper than ever he did before and find 
soil all the way down. 

Setting the Ploiv. — Now about setting the plow. 
We use a rolling coulter and a pair of wheels on the 
beam. One can buy trucks to fit a walking plow, or 
he can have wheels adapted to the use by his black- 
smith. It is probably cheaper to buy the trucks. 
As we needed them on Woodland Farm before any 
manufacturer had started making them we made our 
own. The wheels hold the beam steady, exactly at 
the right depth. It is an old device that has been in 
use for centuries in Europe, but has not been imi- 
tated in America simply because we have run after 
cheapness too much, and because we have not done 
much good plowing as yet= With these wheel trucks 
a small boy can plow alfalfa sod almost as well as a 



PLOWING ALFALFA SOD. 421 

man. A boy will do better plowing with a good 
plow nicely adjusted with these Wheels on the beam 
than any man could do without the wheels. 

The File Important. — The file is one of the essen- 
tials. On Woodland Farm w^here there are some 
small stones in the land we file the plows sharp 
after they have run about Vo mile or a little more. 
It takes only a few minutes to do this and no longer 
to file often than it would to file occasionally, and 
by filing often the plow is always sharp. The horses 
are resting while you file. 

Early Start Desirable. — It is rather slow work 
plowing alfalfa sod at best. Therefore it is well to 
gee at it early in the season. After growth starts in 
spring alfalfa roots get very tough, and if the land 
is dry and hard at the same time the plowing is 
difficult. 

To sum up, get a strong plow, preferably with a 
good stiff wooden beam. Put truck wheels on the 
beam, well forward, to hold it true. Have the share 
wide and sharp. If the roots are old and tough 
have a wing fastened on that will run under the 
edge of the next furrow and cut off the roots there 
for about three inches. Keep the plow sharp. Take 
time. We have not found it necessary or advisable 
to plow twice ; one good plowing at a depth of about 
eight inches has done the work well for us and would 
do the work anywhere probably wherever the land 
was cultivated the following season. 

Breaking Sod in Colorado.— Tvof, Philo K, Blinn 



422 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of the Colorado experiment station gives Ms ex- 
perience thus in ''The Rural New Yorker": 

The attempt to break alfalfa with the ordinary plow is usually 
a miserable failure, as it is not suited to the work. A very suc- 
cessful alfalfa plow can be made by adjusting and making a few 
changes in the regular sod plow or prairie breaker. The essen- 
tial points to consider are: The long strong beam to steady the 
plow; the long landside to resist the tremendous cutting strain. 
It is often necessary to reinforce the beam with heavy iron to 
withstand the draft. The plow should be adjusted to cut a very 
narrow furrow, not over 12 inches; an extra long share to lap 
part of the last furrow to prevent the roots near the heel from 
whipping around, only partly cut off. This can also be prevented 
by a horizontal cutter bolted to the bottom of the landside, thus 
partly cutting the roots in the next furrow; this cutter is 
forged with a right-angle shoulder that fits and fastens with the 
bolt through the short landslide. 

The next essential is a very sharp share, drawn thin and har- 
dened so that it will not be brittle. A sharp share should be 
replaced each day and a good file is necessary to touch up the 
edge once in a while. Breaking alfalfa on stony land is very 
difficult, and is extremely hard on plow shares. The most es- 
sential point in an alfalfa breaker is a long, heavy, well-pointed 
share with a very wide wing six or eight inches at the heel, and 
IV2 to two inches of the edge rolled so as to run almost flat on 
the bottom of the furrow, thus cutting ahead of the lift and 
avoiding a dragging cut. The standard plow factories are mak- 
ing for the western farmer alfalfa specials with extra alfalfa 
shares; these are chiefly in sulky plows, but where it is not 
practical to afford such a plow the walking breaker can be fitted 
and adjusted to do excellent work, though it is somewhat harder 
for the man that holds the plow. Alfalfa breaking usually re- 
quires three to four good heavy horses for a team. 

The depth and time to plow alfalfa are somewhat mooted ques- 
tions. They vary with conditions. It is usually conceded that 
fall breaking is a success, but in Colorado, alfalfa is generally 
plowed shallow, four to five inches deep, so that the roots and 
crowns may be well harrowed to the surface to dry out. It is 
then replowed one or two inches deeper than it was broken. 
Alfalfa when dormant, if plowed under in moist soil, will readily 
take root and grow if not harrowed out. Many farmers are hav- 
ing better success in breaking alfalfa late in the spring, after the 
m^U^ is 10 or Ig ijiche? bigh. plgwing m^^v the greeii m^lJWrf? 



PLOWING ALFALFA SOD. 423 

The growth seems to have exhausted the stored plant food, and 
if the roots are all cut very little will start to grow, especially 
if the field is planted to some crop like potatoes, that can be 
well cultivated. Complaints about difficulties in plowing alfalfa 
usually come from sections where rotation with alfalfa has not 
been started long. 



ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES. 

The pocket gopher is a serious pest in the alfalfa 
field. In many western states it is indeed a most 
serious menace. In all the non-irrigated parts of 
California the gopher cuts short the life of an al- 
falfa field. Irrigation stops their work, but irriga- 
tion is not alwaj^s possible. T. J. Headlee of the 
Kansas experiment station thus discusses the gopher 
and his work in Bulletin 155 : 

No other animal attacking the underground parts of alfalfa can 
equal or even closely approach the gopher in destructiveness. 
■\yhile the pocket gopher occurs in all parts of the state it is most 
abundant and destructive in the valleys of the Kansas River and 
its main tributaries. The plains pocket gopher {Geow.ys lutes- 
cens, Merr.) holds sway on the western plains, and the prairie 
pocket gopher (Geomys hursarius, Shaw) infests most of the re- 
mainder of the state. These two species show such a similarity 
in life-habits that for the consideration of methods of combating 
a knowledge of the prairie form will serve for both. 

The prairie pocket gopher is short and stocky, showing an 
average length of about ten inches from the tip of its nose to 
the end of its stubby, hairless tail. Its body is covered with 
silky dark brown hair, its eyes are small and well protected by 
fur, and its ears are so short as hardly to cause a ripple in the 
smooth-lying fur of the head. Its front feet are furnished v/ith 
long, strong claws and otherwise modified for digging. In fact, 
the whole structure of the animal fits it for its subterranean 
existence. 

The gopher tunnels hither and thither in search of food, at 
intervals digging short lateral burrows to the surface through 
which it pushes the excavated earth and dumps it outside, thus 
forming the mounds that indicate its presence and mark its pro- 
gress. These animals are most active during the fall and spring, 
and one individual may throw up several mounds daily for sev- 
eral weeks at a time. During these seasons the work of a few 
gopber§ in m alfalfa-fielcl may cause the immitiatea to suppose 

(424) 



ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES. 425 

the field infested by dozens. Although the animals are most ac- 
tive at these times they work only less vigorously throughout 
the rest of the year. Even in winter, whenever the ground is 
sufficiently free from frost, they throw up mounds here and 
there. 

Except for possible brief excursions at the periods of mating 
and migrating, the gopher passes practically its entire life in its 
burrow. Indeed, it is a rare occurrence to find one abroad on any 
errand. They appear to live solitary, each individual gopher ap- 
parently bent on having his world to himself, and each digging 
and taking care of his own dwelling. Doubtless where fields are 
so badly infested that tunnels cross and recross, more than one 
gopher may be trapped in the same runway. The female pro- 
duces but one litter of young per year, yet because of her 
sheltered life raises enough of them that the species is constantly 
increasing. 

The natural food of the gopher consists of succulent roots and 
such green vegetation as can be dragged from the surface into 
the burrow. The coming of alfalfa, with its deep-growing suc- 
culent roots has largely solved the question of food supply for 
this animal by providing it with an abundance easily accessible 
both in winter and summer. Truly the conditions of the alfalfa 
field are such as to render life easy for the gopher tribe. 

Not only does the animal injure alfalfa by actual consump- 
tion of the roots, but by covering up a considerable portion 
(sometimes 20 per cent) of the area badly infested, and by 
rendering the crop in fields so infested difficult to harvest. 

Many methods of combating these animals have been tested at 
this station, and poisoning has been found at once the quickest 
and most efficient. Shooting and trapping require too much 
time, and fumigation is inefficient. Pieces of potato, apple, and 
sweet potato, about the size of the end of the little finger, 
poisoned by inserting a few crystals of strychnine into slits 
made with the point of a knife, or raisins and prunes treated in 
the same way, and carefully introduced into fresh runways, have 
given excellent results. While these baits are as successful as 
any used, much time is required in their preparation, and the 
station has therefore undertaken the manufacture and sale (at 
cost of materials and labor) of a poisoned syrup, one quart of 
which is sufficient to poison one-half bushel of corn. The corn 
is put to soak in hot water the evening of the day before the 
bait is to be used. In the morning the water is drained off, the 
requisite amount of poison poured over the corn and thoroughly 
mixed with it. Cornmeal may be used to take up the excess 



426 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

moisture, and the bait is ready for use. Any citizen of the state 
is entitled to a copy of the formula according to which this 
syrup is manufactured and may make it for himself if he so de- 
sires. The station sells the prepared poison for $1.10 per quart, 
delivered to the express or freight agent at Manhattan. 

Whatever sort of bait may be used, success depends upon in- 
troducing it into fresh runways. Choose fresh-looking mounds 
and prod on the line between them with a wagon rod or sharp- 
ened broom handle to locate the runway; or, failing there, prod 
about the freshest mounds. The sudden giving of the soil and 
the apparent looseness of the stick in it is sufficient to show that 
the runway has been located. Remove the prod and drop a tea- 
spoonful of the poisoned bait into the burrow, leaving the hole 
open. Level the mounds with some sort of a drag, and as fast 
as new ones appear locate the burrows and put poison into them. 

In case the area to be treated is large some sort of a special 
instrument for locating the runways is desirable. A very good 
one can be made from a spade handle by covering the pointed 
end with iron and fastening a foot-rest about fifteen inches above 
the point. 

By the use of the means just described the enterprising farmer 
can rid his land of gophers and keep them out of it. Once the 
farm is freed, the vigilance and prompt treatment necessary to 
keep it so will require but little time and effort. 

No other creatures now attack the underground parts of alfalfa 
with sufficient vigor to demand attention, althought moles and 
spermophiles, particularly the latter, may become injurious later. 

Grasshoppers. — Several species of grasshoppers 
feed on alfalfa and do it at times notable injury. Fall 
disking is reoommended to destroy the egg masses 
of the hoppers and this will perhaps be pretty effi- 
cient so far as it goes, though no doubt millions of 
eggs may be deposited along the margin of the fields 
and along roadsides. For the hoppers that come in 
spite of this disking the hopper-dozer is recom- 
mended. Essentially a dozer consists of a shallow, 
high-backed pan mounted on runners high enough 
so that its bottom will scrape the tops of the alfalfa 



ANTMAI^ PESTS AND DISEASES. 427 

stems. The dozer is filled with water and coated 
with a film of kerosene. It is used in the warm part 
of the day because then the hoppers are decidedly 
most active. 

When it is drawn forward through the infested 
field, the hoppers spring to get out of its way and 
most of them may land in the water and be de- 
stroyed by contact with the kerosene. If enough 
turkeys and guineas are kept hoppers will be much 
reduced in numbers. 

Ants. — Webworms, army worms, fall army 
worms, cutworms and blister beetles all occasionally 
injure alfalfa more or less. Mound-building ants are 
troublesome in western fields. The ants are readily 
destroyed by use of bisulphide of carbon. Taking 
note that the ants are canny and carefully guard 
their homes, Prof. Headlee thus comments : 

On the approach of a storm a large force is employed and the 
gateways are closed in haste, but when it has passed they are re- 
opened and the ants return to their work. 

The ant colonies are too few to decrease the yield seriously, 
although occasionally they will destroy the alfalfa on from one 
to two per cent of the total area of a badly infested field. Their 
claim to rank as alfalfa pests lies principally in the increased 
difficulty of harvesting the crop when they are present. 

Extended experiments have shown that the ants can most 
easily and efficiently be controlled by fumigating the nest with 
carbon bisulphide as follows: Set fumigation only when gateways 
are open; invert a galvanized iron vessel, such a common wash- 
tub, over one or more of the openings, covering as much of the 
mound as possible; firmly pack soil over such holes as the tub 
will not reach; introduce under the tub and near the holes a 
shallow dish containing from one to three ounces (depending on 
the size of the nest) of carbon bisulphide; set the tub down and 
quickly pack soil about the rim, making it as nearly air-tight as 
possible; allow to stand for five hours. The forming vapor, being 



428 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

heavier than air, sinks downward and comes to fill every cham- 
ber and gallery, destroying all the occupants. 

It must be remembered that carbon bisulphide is as explosive 
as gasoline and must be used with equal care. 

Conclusions. — The conclusions of Prof. Headlee as 
to the proper way to combat these insect enemies of 
alfalfa are as follows : 

When we call to mind that the grasshopper passes the winter 
in the soil in the egg stage, the web worm, army worm and cut- 
worms remain in the soil over winter as larvae, the fall army- 
worm as a pupa, that the blister-beetles are dependent upon a 
supply of grasshopper eggs for food during one necessary stage, it 
is plain that thoroughly stirring the soil with a disk-harrow 
(preferably the spike-tooth kind) just after the frost is out of the 
ground and before the plants begin to grow, or, better still, in the 
late fall just before the ground freezes, if such a proceeding 
would not injure the plants, will go far toward controlling the in- 
sects enumerated. During the summer, when these insects are 
in the field or when the alfalfa is attacked by clover hay worms, 
leaf-hoppers, mound-building prairie ants or pocket gophers, the 
grower must resort to measures especially fitted to destroy the 
enemy in question. 

To this I would add that in the eastern states 
insect enemies are much less in evidence in alfalfa 
fields, owing probably to the cold, wet winters, and 
the pocket gopher has not yet been introduced, 
though he is probably -on his way. Woodchucks or 
groundhogs are a pest in eastern meadovv^s ; they are 
readily destroyed by use of bisulphide of carbon. 
The way to use it is to saturate a rag with a table- 
spoonful or more, throw it down the burrow as far 
as you can and immediately stop the hole tight. A 
sod may be laid over it first, then earth heaped on it. 
All holes should be treated as they may communicate 
with each other. 



ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES. 429 

Prairie dogs are readily suffocated with the same 
chemical, or they may be poisoned in early spring, 
before growth starts, or they may be drowned ont if 
irrigation water is available. 

For the neighbors' chickens no adequate remedy 
has been discovered. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 

Alfalfa does not seed well as a general rule in any 
moist climate. Hardly any alfalfa seed is threshed 
east of the Missouri Eiver. A little is harvested in 
Ontario and occasionally a man has saved and 
threshed seed in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio or New 
York. Stray plants in almost any location, stand- 
ing out by themselves, especially if on a bank or 
some dry situation, will usually set full of seed. A 
field adjacent might be left for seed and make 
hardly any at all. Why this is we do not understand. 

It will seldom pay the eastern farmer to attempt 
to grow alfalfa seed. He can buy it cheaper than 
he can grow it. Even in Kansas, Nebraska and other 
western alfalfa seed-producing states the seed crop 
fails if the season happens to be wet. 

Adaptability of Seed. — Alfalfa seed is valuable 
for different sections according to its source. Thus 
seed from Nebraska or Kansas thrives in Ohio, In- 
diana and New York. Seed from Arizona is not 
hardy in Nebraska. Seed from Montana will not 
produce so well in Texas as seed from Arizona. Al- 
falfa is like corn, it adapts itself to climates. The 
rule of survival of the fittest comes in play also, so 
it is most wise to take account of the place where 
your seed was grown. Seed imported may thrive 
in one part of the United States and fail to thrive 

(430) 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED, 43:1 

well in another part. Seed from Peru will winter- 
kill in one place and thrive exceedingly in another, 
Arabian seed gives a good account of itself in one 
part, is a failure in another. As with corn, it is safer 
to 'take seed from north of you rather than from 
south of you. 

A Money-Making Crop. — Fortunes may be made 
in growing alfalfa seed. Millions of acres that are 
too dry for profitable grain-growing will grow al- 
falfa seed under right treatment. The demand is 
insistent and rapidly increasing. The supply is not 
often equal to the demand. In 1890 I bought alfalfa 
seed for $4 per bushel of 60 lbs. It is now worth $10 
to $12. It is very desirable that alfalfa seed should 
be cheaper. It is a plant that would come into short 
rotations if only the seed were cheap enough. There 
is profit in growing it at half the present prices. 

A Kansas Vieiv. — The following study of alfalfa 
seed growing is by Prof. A. M. TenEyck of the Kan- 
sas agricultural college : 

The Soil. — Good crops of alfalfa seed may be produced on a 
variety of soils, ranging from black gumbo to sandy loam, but 
the general experience is that the soil should be well drained and 
of average fertility. Very fertile land, and soil supplied with an 
abundance of moisture, produces plant, not seed. On this ac- 
count in central and eastern Kansas upland or second bottom is 
usually considered superior to bottom-land for alfalfa seed pro- 
duction. A soil poor in fertility will produce only light crops of 
seed, while large yields of seed may be produced from fertile land 
in a favorable season, but with unfavorable weather conditions 
the seed crop is more apt to fail on the more fertile soil. Rank- 
ness in growth of plant is not conducive to the production of seed. 
Alfalfa will not thrive on a shallow soil with hard-pan subsoil, or 
on low or poorly drained land. 



432 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The Weather. — In the opinion of many alfalfa growers the 
weather is a more important factor than the soil in determining 
the production of a good crop of alfalfa seed. On a given soil 
capable of growing alfalfa, the weather is the determining factor 
in seed production, or it may be as truly said that the moisture 
supply, in time and amount, largely determines the alfalfa seed 
crop on any field. On this point a majority agree that the alfalfa 
should have a moderate supply of water in the early part of the 
season, and during the early growth of the seed crop— just suffi- 
cient moisture to produce a vigorous, healthy plant. To insure a 
good crop of seed no heavy rains should fall after the alfalfa be- 
gins to blossom until most of the bloom has fallen, and then the 
weather should continue rather dry until the seed crop is har- 
vested and threshed, or put into the stack. Wet weather in the 
latter stage of its growth causes a continuation of blooming and 
the starting of a second growth of alfalfa, which interferes with 
an even and proper maturing of the seed. Also it has been ob- 
served that the hot, dry weather, with a deficiency of moisture in 
the soil during the seed-forming period, has resulted in light, 
blasted seed and a low yield. It is said that under the conditions 
observed alfalfa flowers fail to secrete nectar and are hence not 
fertilized because not visited by bees and other insects. 

Other Factors. — A rather thin stand of alfalfa with vigorous 
plants of average growth favors the development of seed, while a 
thick stand and a rank growth of plant are considered unfavor- 
able conditions for seed production. The seed fields should be 
comparatively free from weeds. By cultivating the alfalfa early 
in the spring, or perhaps after the first or second hay crop is re- 
moved, the weeds may be held in check and the soil kept in good 
tilth, resulting in strong, well developed plants, capable of pro- 
ducing large yields of sound, plump seed. 

Effect of Bees and Other Insect. — Until recently it was gen- 
erally understood that to fertilize alfalfa blossoms required that 
pollen from a separate flower be brought in contact with the 
pistil of another flower. This, it was explained, was doubtless 
largely accomplished by insects, which transferred the pollen 
from blossom to blossom while they sipped the nectar which each 
flower secretes apparently for this very purpose of attracting in- 
sects. It is probable that cross-fertilization is largely accom- 
plished in this way, but, as shown by Roberts and Freeman of 
this station, alfalfa blossoms may be self-fertilized. It is only 
necessary that the "trigger mechanism" which controls the fer- 
tilizing organs be sprung by the touch of an insect or other 
means, possibly the shaking of the plant in a strong wind, when 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 433 

the confined stamens and pistil fly up and the pollen is dusted 
against the stigma and over the insect, or, in case of hand pollina- 
tion, the instrument which is used to spring the little flower 
trap. Thus the insect, passing from blossom to blossom, mixes 
the pollen of many flowers, but the hand pollination has shown 
that the blossom may be fertilized with its own pollen. 

Farmers are divided upon this point as to whether insects are 
necessary or useful in the pollinization of the flowers. Many 
maintain that as good crops of seeds were produced many years 
ago, before bees were introduced into a certain locality, as are 
produced now. Others state that in a locality where bees are 
kept there is no noticeable difference in seed yields near apiaries 
compared to yields from fields further away. Such data, how- 
ever, do not disprove the facts as stated above. Doubtless other 
insects besides bees assist in fertilizing the alfalfa flowers. If 
you will observe an alfalfa fleld in full bloom you will usually 
find it swarming with insects of various kinds — bees, flies, butter- 
flies, millers, ants, and sometimes grasshoppers — although it is 
doubtful whether the latter are of any beneflt, and certain it is 
that they are often a pest when numerous. It is quite possible 
that ants are among the important insects concerned in fertilizing 
alfalfa blossoms. There is some proof that bees do assist in pol- 
linating the alfalfa flowers. 

Although reports on this point have not been very authentic, 
there seems to be little question but that bees may assist in fer- 
tilizing the alfalfa blossoms and thus increase the yield and im- 
prove the quality of the seed. At this station alfalfa plants cov- 
ered with fine netting produced no seed except in fiowers whicli 
pushed through or against the netting, allowing fertilization by 
insects from the outside. On the other hand, adjacent plants not 
covered were well filled with seed pods. 

There should be a double benefit to the alfalfa seed grower 
who keeps bees, for not only may he secure larger yields of a 
superior quality of seed by reason of the work of the bees, but 
the alfalfa is one of the most valuable honey plants. In the 
alfalfa districts of the state the yield of honey per hive, according 
to the report of Secretary Coburn of the State Board of Agricul- 
ture, is much larger than in the sections where alfalfa is but little 
grown; and not only may the bees in alfalfa districts make 
double or treble the usual amount of honey, but this honey is 
very superior in quality, unequaled even by the white clover 
honey of the eastern states. "In favorable seasons, 100 pounds 
of honey per hive is no uncommon yield in alfalfa regions." 

Which Crop to Save,— The region lying west of the Missouri 



434 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

River grows most of th 3 alfalfa seed produced in the United 
States. A large part of this seed is grown by irrigation in the 
western part of the great plains region, in several of the moun- 
tain states, and in California. Much seed is also produced with- 
out irrigation in the eastern part of the great plains region. The 
dry climatic conditions of the West make this section of the coun- 
try better adapted for the production of alfalfa seed than the 
more humid regions of the central and eastern states. The best 
quality of seed and the largest crops are produced in an arid 
climate by irrigation. The supply of water and the weather con- 
ditions during the growing period of the crop largely determine 
which crop to save for seed. Any one of a season's crops may 
produce good seed provided the soil and weather conditions are 
right for growing and maturing seed. About the same time is 
required to produce a crop of seed as is required to produce t.vo 
crops of hay. In the irrigated districts of Colorado and western 
Kansas the first crop is often saved for seed, the practice being 
not to irrigate this crop, thus causing a medium but thrifty 
growth of plant, which, with the favorable weather conditions 
prevailing in the arid regions, usually seeds well. 

On the whole, especially in the more humid regions, the second 
or third crop is more often saved for seed than the first crop, 
mainly because more favorable weather conditions prevail in the 
late summer and early fall for maturing the seed. Also, the in- 
sects which may help to fertilize the blossoms are more numer- 
ous in the latter part of the season. Only in the southern states 
is it possible to use a later crop than the third for seed. 

In those latitudes where the third crop may mature seed be- 
fore cool weather and frost, the choice between the second and 
third crop for seed is decided mainly by the weather conditions 
at and before the blossoming period. If the supply of moisture 
has been moderate and the alfalfa has made a proper growth and 
little or no rain falls during the blossoming period, the second 
crop will likely seed well. However, if the second crop is rank in 
growth, or heavy rain falls just previous to or when the alfalfa is 
in bloom, it is best to cut for hay. In the non-irrigated area of 
the semi-arid portions of Kansas and other western states drought 
is apt to prevail in the latter part of the season, by which the 
growth of the third crop is greatly reduced, causing only a small 
development of seed. In such districts the second crop should be 
saved for seed, or perhaps the first crop, especially on dry up- 
lands which may produce only one good crop (the first crop) in a 
season. In northwestern Kansas and Nebraska it is doubtless 
safer to use the second crop for seed, as the thira crop is apt to 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 435 

be caught immature by frost. In central-northern Kansas a farm- 
er must usually decide whether to save the second or third crop; 
if the third crop is to be saved for seed it is best to cut the first 
and second crops a little early, giving as much time as possible 
for the third crop to mature. Also the early cutting for hay may 
give not only an earlier but a more vigorous growth to the third 
crop, insuring a large production of seed in favorable seasons. 

Some growers state that the third crop should be preferred for 
seed because it blooms and matures more evenly and in a shorter 
period than the second crop. If this is a fact, it may be largely 
due to the favorable weather conditions which are more apt to 
prevail during the season of the year when the third crop is 
.growing and maturing. When it can be successfully done, using 
the third crop for seed has an advantage over using the second 
crop in that it allows the harvest of two good hay crops, while 
if the second crop is harvested for seed only one crop of hay is 
usually secured that season, the growth after the seed crop being 
insufficient, as a rule, in the sections of Kansas named, to produce 
hay. 

On the other hand, when the third crop is matured for seed 
sufficient growth of the alfalfa usually takes places after remov- 
ing the crop to give a good winter cover, and it is the general 
report by those who practice this plan that, taking the third cut- 
ting for seed does not exhaust the alfalfa plants so much as tak- 
ing the second crop for seed, and a similar observation is made 
as regards the seeding of the first or second crop, some growers 
reporting that when the first crop was allowed to mature seed 
there was little or no growth after the seed crop was removed, 
during the balance of the season. 

Insect pests, as the grasshopper and web-worm, are also a factor 
in determining whether the second crop, or any crop, may be 
safely saved for seed. The web-worm is more likely to attack the 
second crop, but in southern Kansas the third crop is also apt to 
be injured by this pest. 

A Good Seed Crop. — Alfalfa is a very uncertain seed crop, and 
it is a difficult matter to estimate with any degree of accuracy 
early in the growth of the crop what the yield of seed will be. 
If the weather and soil conditions have been favorable and the 
alfalfa has made a proper growth (not too thick and rank, but 
rather the stems should be of medium height and stout, with 
ma,ny branches), and there is an even, heavy bloom over the field 
in five or six days after the first bloom appears, and no rain falls, 
the prospect for seed is good. The blooms should be large and of 
a 4ark, rich color, Wheji the blossoms are small and light in 



436 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

color it is evidence of a light crop of seed. Again, if the blos- 
soms fertilize properly the flowers dry and stick to the stem a 
few days, while if they are not fertilized they drop quickly and 
the stems stand bare. Even before the bloom falls the circular 
pods are visible. The pods should appear thickly set on the stems, 
two or more in a group, to insure a good seed crop. Finally, if by 
examination the pods are found to be well filled with seed, the 
crop is assured, barring accidents by which the seed may be lost 
in harvesting and thrashing. 

From the above suggestions it may seem to the novice that he 
would be able to judge fairly well when a crop of alfalfa should 
be left for seed; yet old growers do not find it easy to decide. A 
grower who has had twenty years' experience writes as follows: 
"I cannot tell when a good crop will be made until near matu- 
rity, as the blossoms often fail to seed, and then too much rain 
may cause well-fruited alfalfa to take a second growth and con- 
tinue to bloom and ripen seed irregularly. Also during damp 
rainy weather the ripe seed may sprout, or when the weather 
turns dry the ripe pods may burst, shattering their seed." It is 
even possible that after a crop is ready to harvest it may be lost 
or badly damaged by excessive rain, causing the seed to sprout or 
the pods to burst when they dry in the sun. 

Relative to saving a crop of alfalfa for seed these suggestions 
may be given: If the weather has been wet and the alfalfa grows 
too rank, cut for hay. If heavy rains fall while the alfalfa is in 
bloom, or before the flowers are fertilized, cut for hay. If for any 
reason the flowers are not fertilized and the bloom falls quickly, 
leaving bare stems, cut at once for hay. Even after the seed is 
formed, if excessive rains come and a second growth starts, cut 
the crop and remove it, because it will fail to ripen seed evenly 
and is almost certain to be an unprofitable crop, and the sooner 
it can be taken from the ground the sooner another crop may 
start and mature. 

When to Harvest for Seed. — The harvesting depends a little 
upon the evenness of blooming and the weather conditions during 
the period of maturing. In a favorable season, with even bloom- 
ing and even maturing of the seed, the rule is to harvest the 
alfalfa when a large proportion of the pods have turned brown. 
In the average season, as the alfalfa matures, part of the seed will 
be ripe while some of the seed is overripe and shattering and 
some is yet immature. With such a crop it is necessary to 
strike an average and harvt^t when the largest amount of plump, 
sound seed may be saved, 

The opinions of farmers yary widely regarding the proper 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 437 

stage of maturity at which to harvest alfalfa. While the major- 
ity prefer to harvest when most of the seed is ripe and when two- 
thirds to three-fourths of the pods are brown, others recommend 
to harvest when one-half of the pods are brown. One grower 
harvests the crop when one-third of the pods are black. One 
grower harvests the crop when one-third of the pods are black, 
one-third brown, and one-third green; others harvest as soon as 
the ripest seed begins to shatter, while still others maintain that 
the first seed that ripens is the best and prefer to cut a little 
early, claiming that the seed will be of as good quality and that 
there is less loss from shattering in handling and less danger of 
damage by unfavorable weather. 

Mature alfalfa seed has a clear, light-golden color; immature 
seed has more of a greenish tinge and may be shrunken; but if 
the crop is not harvested until the seed is fully ripe the pods drop 
off, the seed shells easily, and the crop is hard to handle without 
great loss, even if it escapes unfavorable weather after harvest. 
On the whole, it seems to the writer safest to cut the crop a little 
green rather than to risk loss in ways mentioned. The greenish- 
colored seed, if not too shrunken, is good vital seed and ger- 
minates well. 

Methods of Harvesting. — A crude method is to cut with a mower 
and rake into windrows the same as hay. Handled in this way 
much seed may be wasted. If the alfalfa is mowed in the morn- 
ing, when the dew is on, and raked immediately, there is much 
less shattering of seed. If cut during the heat of the day, to pre- 
vent the shelling and waste of seed men should follow the machine 
with forks, moving the cut alfalfa out of the way of the team and 
the machine. When provided with a buncher or windrov>^er at- 
tachment, the mower does better work and may be economically 
used. There is some objection to leaving the alfalfa in loose 
bunches or in open windrows, and unless the weather is very 
favorable and the purpose is to thrash at once, it is best to follow 
the mower closely, placing the alfalfa in larger piles or cocks, 
about what a man may lift at one forkful, thus avoiding pulling 
the bunches apart in loading, which would cause the pods to 
break off and the seed to shatter. Also if the alfalfa is placed at 
once in the cock in this way, the seed is prevented from bleach- 
ing so much and the straw settles and sheds rain and is pre- 
served and cured better than when left in the loose bunch or 
windrow, and well-cured alfalfa straw is said to have one-half 
the feeding value of alfalfa hay. 

The self-rake reaper is in common use, and is an excellent ma- 
chine with which to harvest the alfalfa-seed crop. The gavels are 



438 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

dropped from the platform out of the way of the horses and the 
machine. Usually men follow with forks and lay three or four 
gavels in a pile. These bunches shed rain and preserve the seed 
and straw in better condition than the single gavels, and the seed 
does not shatter so badly in handling the larger compact bunches 
as in handling the smaller ones. 

Some few growers cut the crop with a header, leaving the al- 
falfa in windrows across the field. This method is only satis- 
factory in a dry season, when the alfalfa is thrashed or stacked 
at once, as soon after harvest as possible. 

Many western growers harvest alfalfa with a binder. The usual 
practice has been to remove the binder part, but leave the pack- 
ers on and throw the bundles out loose, dropping in bunches by 
use of the bundle-carrier, or bunching with the fork as already 
described in the use of the self-rake reaper. In recent years, 
however, some prefer to bind the alfalfa in bundles and shock the 
same as wheat or other grain. The advantage claimed for this 
method is that it requires less help, since one man may do the 
harvesting and put the crop into the shock if help is scarce; the 
alfalfa may be cut a little greener, the seed does not shatter so 
readily, and the straw may cure and keep better than when put 
up loose. 

When bound and shocked the alfalfa should stand a couple of 
weeks, until dry enough to thrash. If put into the stack, thrash- 
ermen prefer to have it loose, as bundles are more apt to be damp 
and tough, but if fully dried when stacked alfalfa should keep well 
in the bundle. It is suggested to stack with layers of straw be- 
tween layers of alfalfa, in order to take up the moisture. 

Stacking and ThrasMng. — The common practice, when it can be 
done, is to thrash from the field as soon after harvest as the seed 
is dry and the straw fully cured. If a machine cannot be secured 
and weather conditions are favorable for stacking, better put into 
the stack at once when the crop is cured than to run the risk of 
damage by wet weather. A single rain will not injure the alfalfa 
much if it is well bunched or cocked, but continued wet weather 
causes the seeds to swell and perhaps sprout, and when the podg 
dry they burst, scattering the seed. Some growers estimate that 
half of the seed is lost in this way by a few days of unfavorable 
weather. Also, if the crop is allowed to lie in the field for a long 
time there is more or less loss of seed from the effects of heavy 
dew and damage from mice and insects, and the longer the alfalfa 
lies the easier the pods break off and the seed shatters when it 
i3 toall7 handled and gt^ckea or tlira§b§d, The largest ^mQual 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 439 

and best quality of seed may be secured by stacking or thrashing 
the crop as soon after cutting as it is in fit condition. 

Care should be taken not to stack or thrash when the straw is 
too green or tough and the seed not fully dry. It requires even 
more time to cure properly the seed crop of alfalfa than it does to 
cure the hay crop; the stems are largely stripped of leaves and 
cure slowly and pack closely in the stack. If stacked green, the 
alfalfa is sure to heat and thus injure or destroy the vitality of 
the seed. Also if thrashed green or damp much seed will be lost, 
since it will not hull properly, and if damp seed is stored in bulk 
it may heat and spoil. To cure the alfalfa fit to stack, from three 
to seven days of favorable weather are required, and a longer 
period if it is thrashed from the field. When bound and shocked 
the crop should have a couple of weeks of drying weather to cure 
before stacking or thrashing. It is safest to put into narrow 
stacks, and it is also a good plan to mix with layers of dry straw, 
especially if the alfalfa is bound and there is any indication that 
the straw is damp or green in the middle of the bundles. The 
straw improves the ventilation of the stack and absorbs the ex- 
cessive moisture. The practice of using straw in this way, how- 
ever, is seldom practicable — better stack only when fully cured. 

To prevent loss of seed in stacking or thrashing, racks are 
sometimes covered with canvas and canvas is spread under the 
machine or along the stack in order to catch the shattered seed 
and the bolls which break off; also care must be taken to handle 
the alfalfa carefully in pitching and loading. Large growers of 
alfalfa often stack the seed crop in the field with the sweep-rake 
and hay-stacker. Those who practice this method usually cut with 
the mower and leave in bunches or windrows, drying the alfalfa 
quickly and stacking as soon as possible. This is a rough way to 
handle the crop and occasions more or less loss of the seed, but 
where a large area is handled it may be moye profitable to handle 
the crop in this way than by a slower method and run the risk 
of damage from wet weather. When the alfalfa is left in gavels 
or bundles, as thrown off by the harvester, it should be taken up 
with a barley fork. There will be less shattering of seed, how- 
ever, if the alfalfa is in small compact bunches, not too heavy to 
be lifted in one forkful. 

When the alfalfa is stacked, unless thrashed within two or 
three days after stacking, it should be allowed to pass through 
the sweat before being thrashed, which requires several weeks or 
months. The best plan is to cover the stacks well to prevent dam- 
age by rain, and thrash late in the fall when the weather is dry 
an4 cooL In order to secure seed for fall sowing it in often Cimv- 



440 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

able to thrash from the field, and in a favorable climate or season, 
if a machine can be secured, this is the safest and most econom- 
ical method of handling the crop. 

Farmers differ in their opinions as to whether it is preferable 
to thrash with a huller or with a common grain separator pro- 
vided with a huller attachment. Some growers favor the use of 
the latter machine because the work can be done more rapidly. As 
a rule, however, when farmers have had a chance to use both 
kinds of machines, and have compared their work, the huller is 
preferred. Although it takes longer to thrash with a good huller, 
yet with a good crop enough more seed may be secured to amply 
pay for the extra time and expense required; in fact, the owner 
of a huller will often pay something for the privilege of thrash- 
ing over again the straw-stacks left by the common thrasher. 
Among the machines used, the Birdsell huller is well recom- 
mended; also the Advance thrashing separator with huller at- 
tachment has received favorable mention. One farmer who has 
used both machines prefers the Advance thrasher to the huller. 

Storing and Marketing the Seed. — A good method is to sack 
the seed and store in a dry place which may be kept free from 
mice and rats. It is stated by some growers, however, that mice 
and rats v^^ill not touch alfalfa seed when they have free access 
to other grain. 

The seed should be cleaned with a good fanning-mill before 
selling, and all light seed, dirt and weed seed removed as far as 
possible. This extra work is usually well paid for in the better 
price received for clean seed. If the alfalfa is green or damp 
when thrashed, the seed had best be spread twelve or eighteen 
inches deep on a tight floor in a dry place and shoveled over once 
or twice to dry before it is cleaned and sacked. Prime alfalfa 
seed should have a bright, clear, light-golden or slightly greenish 
color. Seed which has been wet or bleached in the field will be 
darker in color, while heated seed will have a brownish dead 
color, indicating its lack of vitality. 

From the grower's standpoint, the best time to sell the seed is 
when the price is highest. Prime seed usually sells at a high 
price early in the fall, when there is apt to be a shortage of seed 
for fall sowing, and again early in the spring, about March 1, 
seed often brings the highest price, depending largely upon the 
supply and demand. Alfalfa seed retains its vitality for several 
years if carefully stored and saved, and it may often be to the 
interest of the grower, when seed is plentiful and the price low, 
to hold the seed for a better market. 

Aside from its use for sowing, alfalfa seed has a standard mar* 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 44l 

ket value in Europe for dyeing purposes, being used in the print- 
ing of cotton fabrics, and large quantities of seed have been ex- 
ported from this country to supply the foreign demand. For dif- 
ferent years and in different parts of the country the price has 
ranged from seven to fifteen cents per pound. A bushel of alfalfa 
seed weighs sixty pounds. Three to four bushels of good seed per 
acre is a profitable crop. The average crop in the more favored 
alfalfa regions ranges from five to seven bushels per acre, while 
yields as high as twelve bushels per acre have been reported. A 
yield of less than two bushels per acre is an unprofitable crop. 

Importance of Good Seed. — An immense amount 
of failure with alfalfa comes through getting bad 
seed. There are various causes of bad seed. Some- 
times it is grown in the wrong latitude and thus fails. 
Some alfalfa seed is grown in Algeria and is ex- 
ported through France. It is improbable that this 
Algerian seed would succeed in Ohio or Illinois or 
Nebraska. Thus in imported seed it is hard to tell 
what one will get. Some French seed is very supe- 
rior and well adapted to eastern America. 

Adulterations. — The worst of seed, however, is 
that containing the weeds and adulterations one 
often gets. For instance, one day recently I visited 
a newly established alfalfa field situated in a region 
where alfalfa is a new plant, struggling to get rec- 
ognition. To my astonishment the young growth 
proved to be nearly every bit burr clover. Burr 
clover seed is always cheaper than alfalfa seed, and 
the enterprising seedsman had adulterated his al- 
falfa seed so vigorously that there was only a rem- 
nant of alfalfa left. I have seen fields so nearly a 
pure stand of yellow trefoil that the stray alfalfa 
plants looked like weeds. 



442 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Examine Samples. — It is safe to get samples of 
alfalfa seed before buying and submit tliem to your 
experiment station for examination, or to the De- 
partment of Agriculture at Washington, choosing 
the seedsman according to the quality of his seeds. 
There are many honest seedsmen, but perhaps few 
competent or sufficiently careful seedsmen. 

Edgar Brown of the Bureau of Plant Industry 
Department of Agriculture, has made careful study 
of imported and home-grown alfalfa seeds and thus 
presents the case in Farmers' Bulletin 194: 

Alfalfa seed is about the size of the seed of red clover, but is 
easily distinguished from it by its uniform light olive-green 
color, as contrasted with the purple and yellow of clover seed. 
Unlike red clover, it varies considerably in shape. 

Adulteration. — Alfalfa seed is often adulterated; numerous sam- 
ples have recently been received at the seed laboratory for exam- 
ination which contain a considerable percentage of yellow trefoil 
seed. A few samples have also been received which contain burr 
clover. 

Yellow Trefoil. — The seed which is most used in this country as 
an adulterant of alfalfa is yellow trefoil. It is darker green than 
alfalfa, so that a sample containing from 10 to 40 per cent of it 
looks brighter and better at the first glance than slightly discolored 
alfalfa seed. Yellow trefoil seed, however, can be easily dis- 
tinguished by an expert, on examination, through a small lens, 
by the differences in shape. Figure 2 shows the typical form of 
yellow trefoil seed. 

Yellow trefoil is a low-spreading, leguminous plant grown for 
sheep pasture on some of the poor, light soils of Europe where 
other forage crops do not grow. It is not grown to any extent 
in the United States and is of no value where clover or alfalfa 
is successful. 

Importation of Yellow Trefoil Seed. — On account of the low 
price of yellow trefoil seed and its resemblance to alfalfa and red 
clover it is imported into this country in considerable quantities 
and used as an adulterant of both these seeds. During the six 
months from June 30 to December 31. 1903, 110,760 pounds of yel- 



(S^ROWING ALFALFA SEED. 443 

low trefoil were imported and practically all was used to adul- 
terate alfalfa and red clover seed. 

Chilean Lucern. — Under the name of Chilean lucern, or luzerne, 
burr clover is used as an adulterant if alfalfa seed in Germany 
and has recently been found in seed offered for sale in the United 
States. It is obtained from the woolen factories in Germany 
which use Chilean wool. Burr clover grows abundantly in Chile, 
and the burrs catch in the wool as the sheep are pasturing. In 
the process of combing the wool the burrs are removed, and the 
seed is afterwards cleaned and put on the market to be used 
as an adulterant of alfalfa seed. 

This seed is similar to that of alfalfa in shape, and though 
slightly larger and lighter in color, it lends itself most readily to 
use an an adulterant. There are two species occurring in about 
equal quantities, which are apparently the ones common on the 
Pacific coast of the United States (Medicago arahica and Medicago 
denticulata) . 

Color of Dead Seed. — A mixture of dead seed can easily be de- 
tected by the color. Fresh seed which will grow is light olive- 
green and when rubbed in the hands gives a bright, glossy sur- 
face. Whenever alfalfa seed is any shade of brown it will not 
grow and is worthless. If a sample contains any considerable 
percentage of discolored seed it should not be accepted. 

Weed Seeds. — The best grades of alfalfa seed contain com- 
paratively few weed seeds. The low grades, however, which are 
mostly screenings, often carry large numbers of weed seeds. 
Dodder is the weed most destructive to the alfalfa plant. It is 
a parasite having no leaves and appears as a tangled mass of fine 
yellow stems winding about and clinging to other plants. The 
seed germinates in the ground and sends up a slender stem that 
winds around the alfalfa plant to which it attaches itself. The 
dodder root soon dies, while the stems continue to grow and 
thrive on the Juices of the alfalfa until it has matured seed or 
the alfalfa has been killed. 

Dodder occurs over most of the area where alfalfa is grown, 
except in the extreme northern states. When once established it 
is very destructive and difficult to get rid of. The only effectual 
way to comhat it is to mow the infested area and burn the cut- 
ting. There are two species which are about equally common 
and destructive to alfalfa and red clover. The seeds of these 
are of nearly the same size and are not easily distinguished. 
The larger dodder seeds approach the smaller alfalfa seeds in 
size and therefore are difficult to clean out thoroughly. In buy- 
ing alfalfa seed it is essential to know that it is free from dodder. 



444 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Cost of High-Gracle mid Loiv-Grade Seed. — It is usually safe to 
assume that the highest grade and consequently the' highest- 
priced seed offered by any one firm is the cheapest to buy. In 
the high grades of alfalfa the seed that will grow costs less per 
pound than that in the low grades. When samples from different 
firms are to be compared a careful estimate of the quality of each 
should be made and the best quality selected. A good grade of 
alfalfa should contain not over 2 per cent of impurities, and 
from 90 to 95 per cent of the seed should grow. 

Home Testing. — It is difficult for one who is not accustomed to 
handling alfalfa seed to determine accurately its percentage of 
purity, especially the amount of dodder and other weed seeds 
present, but a general estimate of the quality of unadulterated 
seed can be formed on a basis of color. The percentage of seed 
that will grow can easily be determined by means of a simple 
tester. 

Mix the seed thoroughly and count out 100 or 200 seeds j^ist as 
they come, making no selection. Put them between a fold of cot- 
ton flannel or some similar cloth, taking care not to let the seeds 
touch one another. Lay the cloth on a plate, moisten it well, 
but do not saturate it, cover with another plate and keep at a 
temperature of about 70° F. Every day count and take out the 
sprouted seeds. In from four to six days all of the good seeds 
will have sprouted, and the percentage of seed that will grow 
is known. 

Free Tests. — The seed laboratory of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is prepared without charge to make tests 
of alfalfa seed and of other seeds, both for germination and 
for mechanical purity. The test for mechanical purity consists 
in determining the percentage of pure seed and of weed seeds, 
including dodder. All samples sent for testing should be addressed 
to the Seed Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C, and should be accompanied as far as possible by 
the following information: Name and address of seller, year and 
place of growth, price paid, and name and address of sender. 

Summary. — The average quality of alfalfa seed on the market 
is frequently low. 

A considerable quantity of adulterated and dead seed is being 
offered for sale. 

Do not buy alfalfa seed that is adulterated or that is brown in 
color. 

Do not buy alfalfa seed containing the seeds of dodder. 

Get samples and test them, or have them tested, in all cases 
before buying. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 445 

Seed . Groiving in the Semi-Arid West. — Within 
recent years there has been a remarkable migration 
of people from the older states to the semi-arid re- 
gions of the West. They have gone there under the 
belief that the climate has changed and that from 
now on there will be enough rainfall for crop-grow- 
ing with the usual grains and farm crops. Many 
hope to do these things by the practice of dry farm- 
ing methods, of intensive culture and moisture con- 
servation. 

I am most unwilling to dampen any man's en- 
thusiasm or lessen his faith in his chosen habitat, 
yet I can not help but remember that I have seen 
the same thing attempted at least once before, and 
the climate then did not stay changed, but perversely 
became dry again, aridity resuming its ancient sway. 
Yet I remember in my own desert home, in a region 
too dry to attempt any farming at all except irriga- 
tion farming, stray alfalfa plants grew and bloomed 
and made great wealth of seed. In fact I had a scat- 
tered row of alfalfa plants 30 mile^ long beside the 
trail to the ranch, where a sack borne on a burro's 
back had leaked a tiny stream as the animal jogged 
its slow way across the desert trail. Only here and 
there a plant grew and survived, but those that got 
rooted lived along, year after year, bloomed and 
made seed. I often thought then, near 30 years ago, 
that the desert could do one thing well, if nothing 
more : it could grow alfalfa seed. 

Every bit of the semi-arid West, from the limit of 



446 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

profitable corn production to the edge of the sage 
brush, and even beyond this a little way, can with 
right management produce alfalfa seed. And this 
alfalfa seed growing may pay as well as good grain 
crops will pay in more rainy lands. I am fortunate 
in having at command a careful study of this whole 
subject by two master minds, Charles J. Brand and 
J. M. Westgate, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, which is submitted : 

The growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed is of more 
recent origin in this country than is the production of hay by 
this method. John Spurrier, in a book entitled "The Practical 
Farmer," published at Wilmington, Del., in 1793, appears to be 
the first American writer to mention the growing of alfalfa in 
cultivated rows. The cultivation was designed to retard the de- 
velopment of weeds, which often prove very destructive to the 
broadcasted seedings of alfalfa in the Middle and South Atlantic 
States. This method is still practiced to a slight extent in a 
few places in the South, where, however, the climate is too 
humid for the successful production of alfalfa seed. 

In England as early as 1730, Jethro Tull, the inventor of the 
drill and the originator of tillage of farm crops in the modern 
sense, advocated and practiced the growing of alfalfa (lucern) in 
rows. His teachings first appeared in his "Specimens." Later, 
in 1829, these were republished by Cobbett in a work entitled 
"Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry." 

What was apparently the first attempt to grow alfalfa for 
seed in cultivated rows in this country was made by what was 
then known as the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. Several contract fields 
of Turkestan alfalfa were seeded in wide rows in different parts 
of the Great Plains area in 1903. The poor seeding habits of 
Turkestan alfalfa when grown in this country, together with the 
fact that the plants were grown mucih too thickly in the rows, 
greatly handicapped the logical development of this method. 

The application of the row method of cultivation has been 
suggested by a number of American experimenters, including 
Prof. W. J. Spillman, Prof. W. M. Hays, Prof. Yv\ A. Wheeler, 
Mr. W. M. Jardine and Mr. C. S. Scofield. Of these only Prof. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 447 

Wheeler has used the method on an experimental and field scale 
and his results are confirmatory to those presented in this paper. 

The work on which the conclusions here presented are based 
has been conducted at various experiment farms of this bureau 
and on the farms of Lewis Brott, Sextorp, Neb.; E. Bartholo- 
mew, Stockton, and Dr. W. A. Workman, Ashland, Kan. 

Row cultivation for seed growing has been in use for a num- 
ber of years in the vineyard regions of southern Germany, par- 
ticularly in Baden and Bavaria, in the production of seed of 
Alt-Deutsche Frankische luzerne, a well-recognized German 
strain. It is said that alfalfa is grown in cultivated rows for 
seed in parts of Russia, where hand cultivators prove an ef- 
fective and practical means of holding the weeds in check and 
of conserving soil moisture. 

The method has been employed for a number of years by Dr. 
L. Trabut, government botanist of Algeria. Fairchild describes 
a method of growing wheat between alfalfa rows in Algeria 
under light rainfall, where it has been found possible to pro- 
duce a crop of wheat between the wide rows of alfalfa in alter- 
nate years. The practical value of this method for the semi- 
arid portions of the United States was indicated in the publica- 
tion mentioned, without, however, making any direct reference 
to the seed-producing possibilities of alfalfa sown in cultivated 
rows under such conditions. 

Principles of Seed Production. — Although alfalfa has been 
grown increasingly in the West since 1854 or 1855 little has 
been done to develop a rational seed industry. It is a matter 
of common observation that even in recognized seed-producing 
sections the seed crop is very uncertain, A study of some of 
the factors that cause success or failure has indicated some of 
the underlying principles affecting the production of profitable 
seed crops. In Bulletin 118 of this bureau attention was directed 
to the fact that cultivated alfalfa is not a homogeneous species, 
but is composed of numerous races, strains, varieties, and even 
sub-species. These vary greatly in many characters, and espe- 
cially in their seed-producing capacity, no pure varieties of 
known high value comparable with those we have of corn, wheat, 
and other crops having as yet been established. It has also 
been noted that the individuals constituting these diverse races, 
elementary species, or whatever they may be called, exhibit great 
variation among themselves. This is particularly true of their 
ability to set seed. To overcome the source of error resulting 
from this diversity in individual plants the method of vegetative 
propagation described by Westgate and Oliver, of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, has been used in a portion of this work. 



448 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

It has often been noted that as a rule isolated alfalfa plants 
set seed far more profusely than those in all but the thinnest 
stands. Observations on this point have been made in various 
parts of the Great Plains and intermountain areas and in the 
farther Southwest. On the Arlington Experimental Farm, near 
Washington, D. C., an experiment was performed to determine 
the effect of different degrees of isolation on the seed-setting 
ability of alfalfa. In this experiment, cuttings from a heavy- 
seeding plant were rooted in the greenhouse and later set out 
at varying intervals. Inasmuch as these plants were propagated 
vegetatively from the same mother plant, they did not show the 
individual variation mentioned above that would have entered into 
the experiment had seedling plants been utilized. 

The plants occupying a space equivalent to a 7-inch square pro- 
duced a maximum of 38 pods, while those having at their com- 
mand a space equal to an 11-inch square produced a maximum of 
96 pods. The highest number of pods formed on plants grown in 
rows 39 inches apart and 18 inches apart in the rows was 505. 

It will be noted that the yields were in almost direct proportion 
to the areas occupied. However, it was evident that the plants 
having the greatest distance between them had not utilized fully 
their allotted space. This was accounted for by the fact that it 
was their first season's growth. An adjoining two-year-old cutting 
from another plant of similar seed-producing tendencies produced 
2,080 pods, and this without utilizing all of the space of 18 inches 
in the 39-inch row assigned to it. Although part of this difference 
may have been due to inherent capacity, the chief explanation for 
it must be sought in the firm establishment of the plant and its 
greater maturity. 

Just why the isolation of plants increases the production of seed 
has not been fully determined, but it is apparent that one of the 
factors involved is the increased amount of sunlight available to 
the plant. It has often been observed that trees grown on the 
banks of irrigation ditches in alfalfa fields or along the margins 
of fields always interfere with normal seed production as far as 
the influence of their shade extends. In the course of an experi- 
ment on the seed setting of alfalfa it was found that partial shad- 
ing ma.terially reduced the quantity of seed produced by plants 
not already receiving more than the optimum amount of sunlight. 

When alfalfa plants have sufficient space for full development 
they have approximately equal illumination on all sides. With 
the plants so far apart that when fully developed they barely 
occupy the ground the potential seed-producing surface exposed 
on an acre is nearly double that of a thick stand. In the latter. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 449 

because of crowding, the plants are unable to produce seed, ap- 
parently on account of shading by closely associated individuals. 

In addition to the injurious influence of shade, the crowding 
of plants interferes with seed production by depriving the plants 
of sufficient moisture to enable them to mature their seed properly. 
This, of course, is true only in areas of light rainfall. On the 
other hand, in sections where irrigation is practiced thick^ stands 
by checking evaporation bring about such moist conditions in 
fields as to promote unfavorable conditions and so prevent maxi- 
mum yields of seed. 

The basal shoots which usually appear when the plant begins to 
bloom are developed at the expense of the seed crop. The energy 
that should be devoted solely to the maturing of the seed is di- 
verted by this new growth. Perhaps the most important factor 
influencing the development of these basal shoots which are to 
form the succeeding crop is the water content of the soil. If the 
moisture supply be ample, the basal shoots commence their growth 
about the time the plant comes into bloom. This is disastrous to 
the seed crop, and for this reason it is necessary that there be a 
sufficient shortage of moisture at this time to retard or prevent 
altogether the development of these shoots. In the seed-produc- 
ing sections of the more humid parts of the Great Plains area 
profitable crops of alfalfa seed are usually obtained only in the 
occasional seasons of drought so extreme that the yield of other 
crops is greatly reduced. 

Drought is used here in a qualified sense. There must of course 
be enough moisture in the soil to enable the seed to mature fully; 
otherwise it will be deficient in germinating power. On the other 
hand, the soil must not contain enough moisture to force into 
growth the crown buds that produce the succeeding crop. 

The favorable conditions for the production of alfalfa seed 
which prevail in the semi-arid regions are due principally to the 
presence there of a favorable adjustment of the supply of moist- 
ure in the soil to the moisture requirements of the plant when 
grown for seed. This is especially true when the plants are grown 
in cultivated rows, as the moisture content of the soil can then 
be regulated to some degree by proper cultivation. 

Insects and the Setting of Seed.— Insect visits are essential to 
the proper pollination of the alfalfa fiower. If fertile seed is to 
be produced in any quantity it is necessary that a certain ex- 
plosive mechanism within the flower be released. The release of 
this mechanism, whether it be accomplished by insects or other- 
wise, is popularly called tripping. 

Experiments and observations both by the writers and by other 



450 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

investigators indicate that practically no seed is produced if the 
flowers are not tripped. Bumblebees (Bomhus spp.) are gener- 
ally believed to be the most efficient of all insects in setting off 
the explosive mechanism, and hence in bringing about pollination. 
Honeybees, though not nearly so effective as bumblebees, should 
not be underrated in this connection. It is a practice in some 
parts of the country to place beehives along the margins of al- 
falfa fields intended for seed. Beekeepers follow with their col- 
onies fields planted for seed, for the purpose of getting the honey. 
This is mutually beneficial, as larger yields of both seed and honey 
result. Wild bees (Andrena spp. and Megachile spp.) and various 
butterflies are also valuable agents in pollinating alfalfa flowers. 

That the explosion of alfalfa flowers may be accomplished by 
other means than insect visitation is quite well known. The in- 
sertion of a more or less pointed instrument into the throat of the 
corolla has often been resorted to in studying the tripping 
mechanism of individual flowers. Roberts and Freeman describe 
a method of exploding flowers in large numbers by rolling the 
head carefully but firmly between the thumb and the first and 
second fingers. This trips the fiowers then at the proper stage 
of maturity. Tripping on a still more wholesale scale may be 
done by grasping the entire plant between the hands at successive 
intervals. In this case it is best to work from the bottom toward 
the top of the plant, exerting the required pressure at the proper 
intervals. 

It has been found that flowers tripped by any form of manip- 
ulation set seed readily, while other flowers left unexploded and 
from which insects are excluded rarely set seed. 

As only a slight pressure on the keel is necessary to trip the 
flower artificial methods may be resorted to as a means of sup- 
plementing the natural process as accomplished by insects. In 
an experiment at the Arlington experimental farm in which the 
method mentioned of exerting pressure successively over the whole 
plant was used, the yield of pods was increased 25V2 per cent 
over adjoining rows not thus treated. At Chico, Cal., an increase 
of 129 per cent in the number of pods resulted. Although greater 
seed yields also result, two experiments at least indicate that the 
increase in the number of seeds is not in as high proportion as is 
the increase in the number of pods. 

Further experiments and more exact observations under vary- 
ing conditions in different sections will be necessary to deter- 
mine just when sufficiently increased yields of seed may be ex- 
pected to justify the expense of the undertaking. Any alfalfa seed 
producer may test this method experimentally on a small scale. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 451 

A hundred plants may be counted off and tripped by band three 
times a week during the blooming period, using either of the 
methods previously described. Another hundred plants of similar 
seeding habits should be left to be exploded by insects. Any 
greater production of seed on a given number of heads on the 
manipulated plants as compared with the same number of heads 
on those not so manipulated may with reasonable safety be at- 
tributed to artificial tripping. 

If the increased yields which have been obtained in the pre- 
liminary experiments are equaled in seed-producing sections, it is 
probable that means will be devised for exploding the flowers on 
a large scale. The only sections in which this method will be 
likely to prove profitable are those where for any reason proper 
insects are not present in sufficient numbers to explode a large 
percentage of the flowers. 

Areas Adapted for Seed. — The experiments thus far carried out 
in the production of seed in cultivated rows have been located 
principally in the semi-arid portions of the Great Plains, in the 
intermountain area, and in the Palouse country of eastern Wash- 
ington. It is probable that the method will be found to be 
adapted to 'many of the semi-arid sections of the country which 
have a rainfall of from 14 to 20 inches, and possibly also to irri- 
gated sections where the supply of water is insufficient for the 
production of full hay crops. It is also recommended for trial 
in irrigated sections having water for but half or less of the nor- 
mal acreage of alfalfa in the district, and also for fields lying 
slightly higher than the ditch lines, but which have the water 
level moderately near the surface. 

Experiments in humid sections indicate that even there row 
cultivation makes possible much higher yields of seed than are 
produced by fields sown broadcast or drilled in the ordinary 
manner. It is doubtful, however, whether even this method will 
insure the production of paying crops of alfalfa seed under humid 
conditions. 

Row cultivation under conditions of ample rainfall is more 
valuable as a method of weed control than for increasing seed 
yields. At the time when pod formation is going on, a certain 
amount of dry weather and heat is necessary to insure the great- 
est production of alfalfa seed, even when the plants are isolated. 
This method promises to be more successful in sections where the 
annual rainfall is from 14 to 20 inches than elsewhere. Where 
the precipitation ranges from 20 to 25 inches thin seeding by 
broadcasting or drilling in the ordinary way may be preferable 
to row cultivation. Fields sown by either of these methods can 



452 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

be kept up at much less expense. Less frequent cultivation will 
be necessary, and when needed may be given with an alfalfa ren- 
ovator or a disk, straight-toothed, or slant-toothed harrow. Under 
these methods, as in row cultivation, the stand must be very thin 
if the best results are to be obtained. 

Selection of Soil. — In the semi-arid sections the ordinary arable 
land, such as is used for the common farm crops, will prove well 
adapted to this work so far as fertility is concerned. Inasmuch 
as the chief purpose of cultivation is moisture conservation, soils 
of large moisture-holding capacity should be used when there is 
opportunity for choice. Care should be taken to avoid fields too 
alkaline for ordinary crops. 

Location of Fields. — In many parts of the semi-arid sections 
alfalfa fields are located in swales or draws or on creek bottoms 
where the moisture conditions are the best that are available. 
Where the rainfall is very light it will be safest to utilize such 
places for growing alfalfa in rows for seed. Where the precipita- 
tion is greater or the run-off which the field secures from the 
surrounding area is sufficient, alfalfa fields, for either seed or 
hay, may be sown thinly either broadcast or with the drill, thus 
obviating a large part of the expense of cultivation. 'It may be 
safely assumed that alfalfa in cultivated rows will succeed under 
somewhat drier conditions than fields grown by ordinary methods. 
In those parts of the semi-arid sections where the rainfall is rela- 
tively heavy it is probable that even the highest and driest por- 
tions of the farm may be successfully utilized by the rov/ method. 

Preparation of the Seed Bed. — The preparation of the ground 
should be such as to rid it as far as possible of weeds and at the 
same time to provide a seed bed which has become well firmed 
by settling or rolling, or both. In the drier portions of the semi- 
arid regions summer-fallowing the preceding season may be neces- 
sary to provide the soil with the moisture required to insure 
prompt germination of the seed. This implies keeping the field 
in the cleanest possible culture during the previous summer. 
Weeds must be controlled and proper tillage must be given after 
each rain. The soil mulch thus maintained will check evapora- 
tion and in the following year place at the disposal of the young 
plants the greater part of two years' rainfall. 

In the North, where spring planting is advisable, surface tillage 
must be continued until seeding time. In many cases it will not 
be necessary to summer-fallow if the field is devoted to a culti- 
vated crop, such as corn, during the preceding year. 

In the Great Plains country, when the ground is plowed, im- 
mediate harrowing and rolling should follow the plowing. In 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 453 

addition, sub-surface packing is advised for all spring-plowed land, 
but may often be omitted in the case of fall plowing, as natural 
settling supplemented by harrowing and rolling usually pro- 
duces a sufficiently firm seed bed. If firming is not done there 
will be at the bottom of the new furrow a dry, porous stratum 
of the old topsoil. This condition, which is present in all freshly 
plowed fields where the surface is dry, may result fatally to the 
young alfalfa plants, as their roots can not make the necessary 
development in this layer, containing dry soil, clods, and air 
spaces. If the field is not to be left fallow long enough for 
harrowing and natural settling to make the ground sufficiently 
firm below, this injurious condition should be remedied by sub- 
surface packing with suitable implements. It is necessary that 
there be sufficient moisture in the soil at seeding time to enable 
the plant to make a sufficiently rapid growth to permit of surface 
tillage without covering up the young plants. 

The purpose of subsurface packing is not to prevent loss of 
moisture, but to re-establish the capillary column which was in- 
terrupted by the plowing under of the dry topsoil. Unless this 
is done the moisture from the lower soil can not reach the roots 
of the plant. Immediate harrowing also prevents considerable 
loss of moisture from the new topsoil. 

In regions where the greater part of the annual rainfall comes 
during the winter and where the ground does not freeze to a 
great depth or remain frozen for a long period, as is the case in 
a large part of the intermountain area and in the southern part 
of the Great Plains, it may be undesirable to level and firm im- 
mediately after plowing, as is indicated for the middle and north- 
ern Great Plains region. This applies only to fall-plowed land. 
The reason for this is obvious, as both these operations may work 
against the conservation of the winter precipitation by preventing 
penetration and promoting run-off. Rough plowed land under 
the conditions described holds a large portion of the moisture due 
to rain or melted snow and gives it an opportunity to soak in 
after each thaw. Spring-plowed fields in the intermountain area 
and southern Great Plains should be given the treatment previ- 
ously indicated for similar fields in the colder portions of the 
Great Plains. 

A promising method of securing the desired seed bed, developed 
by Dr. W. J. Workman, of Ashland, Kan., has been found to 
give satisfactory results on buffalo-grass sod. The principal diffi- 
culty in the growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed is the 
weediness of the ground during the first season after seeding. Tnis 
is avoided by the utilization of sod land. A 16-inch sod plow is 



454 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

used CO cut a furrow 2i/^ inches deep through the sod, a stirring 
plow following immediately in the furrow left by the breaking 
plow and leaving a furrow about 8 inches deep. On the next 
round the breaking plow puts the strip of sod in the bottom of the 
deep preceding furrow, where it is completely covered by the new 
soil turned up by the stirring plow. The harrow is kept at work 
to smooth and firm the ground as fast as it is turned, and the 
alfalfa is seeded with the grain drill while the soil is still moist. 

Prevention of the Drifting of Soil. — If the ground is so sandy 
as to be in danger of drifting or blowing during high winds, it is 
the best practice to seed alternate rows of oats or barley aner io 
make these rows run at right angles to the direction of the pre- 
vailing winds. The first cultivation of the alfalfa plants will 
destroy this grain nurse crop, which should in no event be left 
long enough to injure the young alfalfa plants. 

Another method of avoiding the danger of blowing out or 
drifting in a sandy soil is to sow the alfalfa with a walking 
garden drill between corn or sorghum rows after the last cul- 
tivation. This method has been tried with success under irriga- 
tion on the experiment farm conducted by the Office of Western 
Agricultural Extension near Fallon, Nev. In attempting to use 
the method under dry-farming conditions careful attention must 
be given to the supply of moisture available for both plants, and 
as it has not yet been put into actual practice in the semi-arid 
sections it should first be tested on a small scale. 

A third method has been suggested by Dr. H. L. Shantz, of 
the Office of Alkali and Drought Resistant Plant Breeding In- 
vestigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, which may prove useful 
when sod land is used. This method consists of leaving narrow 
strips of virgin sod at suitable intervals through the fields at 
right angles to the prevailing direction of the most destructive 
winds. 

A method applicable especially to old fields which show a ten- 
dency to blow during high winds has been suggested by N. 
Schmitz, of the Office of Forage Crop Investigations, Bureau of 
Plant Industry. This method calls for the seeding of the al- 
falfa in shallow listed furrows running at right angles to the 
direction of the prevailing heavy winds. It is necessary that 
these furrows be shallow, or heavy rains which sometimes occur 
may bury the seedling plants. If the planting does not take place 
at the time of listing or if the planting attachment to the lister 
can not be adapted to this work, a corn drill or check-row planter 
may be used by making the necessary alterations in the plates. 
This method of listing may also prove efficient in catching the 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 455 

snow during the winter preceding the planting. Spring harrow- 
ing will level the ridges if they are too high at planting time. 
Choice of Seed. — Other things heing equal, seed from plants 
grown without irrigation should be used in preference to any- 
other. The relatively small quantity required when this method 
is used justifies increased precaution and expense to obtain the 
best seed available. Some few strains of Turkestan alfalfa 
have given better yields of hay than the ordinary kind under 
semi-arid conditions. However, none of them have shown satis- 
factory seed-producing capacity. Special dry-land strains of al- 
falfa that have been developed through unconscious selection in 
some of the older dry-farming centers of the West practically al- 
ways exceed in seed production the Turkestan and all other 
forms of alfalfa thus far introduced. Whenever these kinds can 
be secured they should be preferred by the farmer. Seed from 
the drier parts of western Kansas and Nebraska, from the dry 
farms of Cache Valley, and from the Levan Ridge near Nephi, 
iJtah, will probably produce the most satisfactory results. 

Method of Seeding in Rows. — Several methods have been used 
in experiments, but the best results have been obtained by sowing 
seed in rows about 3 feet apart. The distance between rows 
should be governed by the moisture supply that can be counted 
on and by the width of the machinery available for use in cul- 
tivating. If seeding is done with an ordinary grain drill with 
shoes 8 inches apart, the stopping up of 4 out of every 5 holes 
will make the rows 40 inches apart. If, on the other hand, 3 out 
of every 4 holes are stopped up, the rows will be 32 inches 
apart. The wider distance is recommended, especially in sections 
where the rainfall is very scant. 

Another method which has given good results, especially in 
hay growing, and which may often prove useful where it is pro- 
posed to use the same field for both hay and seed production, is 
that of sowing double instead of single rows. This can be ac- 
complished by leaving 2 holes open and stopping up 3 or 4 
holes across the drill. The double rows will then be 8 inches 
apart, while the space left for intertillage will be 32 or 40 inches 
wide. Experiments with this method which have been under 
way for two seasons on the San Antonio Experiment Farm of the 
Office of Western Agricultural Extension indicate that this method 
will be useful under some conditions. It has also been used with 
success under Prof. Wheeler's direction on the state substation 
farm at Highmore, S. D. 

Any good garden drill will give satisfactory results. If such 
an implement is not available it may be found advisable to pro- 
cure one for use in this work. 



456 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

An ordinary corn drill such as is used in drilling corn in listed 
furrows can be used by babbitting up the holes in the corn plate 
and drilling new ones of proper size to drop about 15 alfalfa 
seeds. If a blank plate is at hand, holes may be drilled into that 
large enough to drop from 10 to 20 seeds. The germination value 
of the seed and all factors that tend to lessen the ultimate num- 
ber of plants must be considered in determining how thickly to 
seed. The holes should be close enough to drop seeds at intervals 
of from 8 to 12 inches. 

Lewis Brott, a pioneer dry-land alfalfa seed producer in western 
Nebraska, has had successful results by using an onion seed 
plate in a corn drill. 

Rate of deeding and Thickness of Stand. — In mature stands 
of alfalfa in cultivated rows the plants should average about 1 
foot apart in the row. To insure this, it is necessary that the 
plants be much thicker at first, as their mortality under dry 
conditions is very high. Satisfactory results have been secured 
by seeding the alfalfa with an ordinary grain drill so set that it 
would sow 12 pounds of seed per acre with all the holes in opera- 
tion. With 4 out of every 5 holes stopped up, approximately 
2 2-5 pounds of seed to the acre will be sown. 

The stand in a cultivated row need be no thicker even at first 
than that of the rows in ordinary drilled fields, though the rows 
of the latter are usually only about 8 inches apart. Where the 
conditions are not favorable, it is usually best to seed more 
thickly at first than is necessary and to thin out the plants subse- 
quently to the desired stand. As much as 7 pounds of seed to 
the acre have been sown in 36-inch rows without producing too 
thick a stand for satisfactory results during the first season. 
Ihis rate of seeding is equivalent to 30 pounds per acre drilled in 
the usual way under conditions of sufficient moisture with the 
rows 8 inches apart. 

If difficulty is experienced in making the drill feed slowly 
enough, it may be overcome for the most part by mixing corn 
chop with the alfalfa seed or by reducing the feed in the grain 
drill with strips of leather. 

Millet or other seed of similar size may be rendered ungermina- 
ble by heating thoroughly in an oven for several hours and then 
mixed with the alfalfa seed to aid in securing any desired rate 
of seeding. Sawdust and dry soil are also frequently used for 
this purpose. 

It is a very good plan to test the drill first on bare soil with 
the shoes not touching the ground. In this way it is possible to 
observe the rate at which the seed is being dropped, and thus a 
proper regulation of the seeding can be secured. There should 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 457 

"be an average of from 4 to 10 plants to the running foot. It has 
been too often the case that the stand in the row has been too 
thick for the best development of the individual plants. In such 
instances cross-harrowing after a majority of the plants have 
become well established will be found to be very effective in thin- 
ning out the stand. 

Seeding in Check Rows to Permit Gross-Cultivation. — Limited 
experiments with seeding in check rows indicate that with heavy 
seed-producing plants of satisfactory character very good yields 
of seed may be secured with hills 30 inches apart in the row. 
This distance permits of cross-cultivation, but is rather narrow 
for most cultivating machinery. The plants being thus isolated on 
all sides, the production of a maximum seed crop is possible. 
No practical means have yet been devised for seeding alfalfa in 
check rows on a large scale. It is probable that an ordinary 
check-row corn planter can be adapted to this work. It would 
be necessary to babbitt up the holes in the plate and then rim 
them out to drop 10 to 20 seeds in a place. The surviving plants 
can later on be thinned to the best plant in the hill. It is possi- 
ble that alfalfa seeded in rows with a wheat drill could be 
thinned out to practically uniform distances by cross-cultivation 
with an ordinary corn plow run at right angles to the rows. The 
plants, with the exception of a few midway between the two sets 
of shovels, would thus be destroyed. 

Time of Seeding. — Early spring seeding will usually yield the 
best results, as more favorable moisture conditions for the 
germination and growth of the young plants are present at this 
time. However, if the soil can be brought into proper condition of 
tilth and moisture content, seeding can take place during the late 
summer if the danger of winterkilling is not too great. In a 
climate of moderate severity if a 6-inch growth is made during 
the fall the plants will probably go through the winter safely, 
and will start out the following spring in much better condition 
to compete with the weeds than v/ill spring-seeded plants. In 
semi-arid regions it is usually impracticable, however, to seed 
alfalfa in late summer or early fall owing to the lack of moisture 
necessary to insure prompt germination. 

In the Dakotas and Montana, June seeding will probably give 
the best results. If seeding is deferred until early summer and 
the soil is harrowed or otherwise treated to keep it in proper 
tilth, most of the weed seeds near the surface will germinate. 
The last cultivation given the land before the alfalfa is sown 
kills this young growth, thus greatly reducing the trouble with 
weeds during the first season. 

Treatment of the Stand the First Season.— The well-settled 



458 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

moist seed bed necessary for the growth of alfalfa furnishes ideal 
conditions for the rapid development of weeds. Several cultiva- 
tions are necessary to hold even those of the first season in 
check. A 2-row cultivator provided with narrow shovels is the 
most practicable machine for this work. Fenders, or, better, a 
box sled, should be provided to avoid the danger of covering up 
the young alfalfa plants, and care should be taken to ridge up the 
rows as little as possible, as this will interfere with mowing op- 
erations. After the stand has become firmly established ridging 
can be readily corrected by cross-harrowiiig. Mr. Bartholomew 
has devised a harrow of adjustable width which is very useful 
both in controlling weeds and keeping up the necessary surface 
mulch. 

The stand may be much thicker during the first season than in 
subsequent seasons. Some of the plants will be destroyed by cul- 
tivation, and the less drought resistant and less hardy plants 
will be killed by the dryness of the summer and the cold of the first 
winter. Unless plants are so thick as to crowd one another no 
thinning should be done by cross-harrowing while the plants are 
still small. 

Experiments in eastern Colorado, eastern Washington and Cali- 
fornia indicate that under very dry conditions the plants should 
not be clipped the first season if they are to make their greatest 
individual development. On the other hand, in the Willamette 
Valley of Oregon it has been found necessary to clip during the 
first season. In any event, clipping, if undertaken at all, should 
be with the sickle bar of the mower set high, and probably should 
not be resorted to unless it is found impossible to hold the 
weeds in check by the ordinary cultivations. As there is still 
some uncertainty regarding clipping the first season, it is sug- 
gested that fariiiers leave a portion of the field undipped to dem- 
onstrate the best practice under various conditions. Should the 
plants begin to set seed, clipping will be advisable. In cases 
where it is practicable, hand weeding or hoeing may be used to 
supplement horse cultivation. 

Treatment of the Stand After the First Season. — The treatment 
of the stand during subsequent seasons will differ very little from 
that of the first season. The plants should average not more 
than four to the foot. In the spring or early summer of the 
second season, if the natural methods of thinning out have not 
been severe enough, it will be necessary to harrow crosswise 
lightly to accomplish a further reduction in thickness of stand. 
It may also be worth while to go over the rows with a hoe as 
soon as the plants commence to set seed, cutting out undesirable 
individuals. This operation will involve considerable time and 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 459 

expense. However, as there is such great variation in the value 
of different plants, this procedure may be justified at least until 
strains of known high value for the conditions at hand have been 
selected and propagated for use on a field scale. 

Row-sown alfalfa fields that have not been properly thinned 
will not give maximum seed yields on account of the various in- 
jurious effects of crowding, which have already been discussed. 

If it is impracticable to reduce the stand by hoeing or by use 
of the ordinary harrow it may be done by cross-disking with a 
disk harrow. The disks should be so adjusted as to cut out the 
proper number of plants, which will depend, of course, upon their 
original thickness in the rows. 

The Right Crop to Leave for Seed. — Experiments at Stockton, 
Kan., show clearly that at that place no crop later than the second 
will yield returns that will be at all satisfactory. Retarded 
growth during the dry part of the summer defers ripening until 
so late in the season that cold nights prevent the maturing of the 
seed. On the other hand, if the first spring growth is devoted to 
seed production the flowers are likely to become overmature be- 
fore the best season for seed development arrives. Frequently 
also, largely on account of the variation in location of the zero 
point of growth in the different individuals composing ^.ny strain, 
the first spring growth matures very unevenly. 

For these reasons it is recommended, especially for the Great 
Plains and the cooler parts of the intermountain area, that the 
first growth of the second and subsequent years be clipped so 
early that the time of seed setting will fall in midsummer or 
slightly later, when favorable conditions are likely to obtain. 

The problem as to what crop should be left for seed under the 
varying conditions of different areas has not yet been fully 
worked out. It may be well for seed growers to try by simple ex- 
periments along this line to get definite information on this 
point. One row may be given an early clipping and then left to 
go to seed; another a later clipping, while still another may be 
left for seed after the first crop has been cut for hay, and so on. 
The temperature and moisture requirements will largely deter- 
mine the best practice in this regard, but the necessary presence 
of suitable insects must not be overlooked. 

Harvesting the Seed Crop.— The harvesting of alfalfa seed 
grown in cultivated rows does not differ materially from that in 
broadcasted fields. With the rows 3 feet apart a mowing ma- 
chine with a 6-foot cutter bar is necessary if two rows are to be 
cut in each swath. This arrangement does away with the neces- 
sity of having an extra man to remove the newly cut bunches 
from the path of the mower at the next round. A mower with a 



460 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

5-foot cut has been found to be too short to be satisfactory in 
cutting two rows at once. 

It is probable that a center-cut mower with one horse attached 
at each end of the cutter bar will prove better adapted than even 
the 6-foot side-draft machine. 

In planning to sow alfalfa for seed in cultivated rows the 
farmer should make his plans from the very beginning with a 
view to using to the best advantage the available machinery. In 
adapting the grain drill to secure the proper distance between 
rows, the mower with which the cutting is to be done must be 
kept in mind, as well as the cultivators that are to be used in 
controlling the weeds and keeping up the dust mulch. 

Thrashing may be done either from the field or from the stack. 
The latter method is probably the better, as curing in the stack 
seems to improve the quality of the seed. The haste necessary in 
order to keep the machines busy when thrashing is done from 
the field results in considerable waste. Whichever method is em- 
ployed in handling the seed crop, it is necessary that a tight- 
bottomed rack be used or there will be much loss of seed. Such 
a bottom can be secured by the use of matched flooring or by 
spreading canvas or a tarpaulin over the bottom of an ordinary 
open rack. 

Thrashing may be done in any one of three ways — the regular 
alfalfa huller, an ordinary grain separator supplied with a hulling 
attachment, or a grain separator fitted out with alfalfa sieves 
may be used. The last has been found to give very satisfactory 
results. Failure to appreciate the fact that the ordinary thrash- 
ing machine can be adapted to the thrashing of alfalfa has re- 
sulted in the loss of the seed crop on many fields in sections where 
seed production is not often attempted or, if attempted, is suc- 
cessful only in abnormal years or where it is carried on inci- 
dentally to other farming industries. In using the ordinary 
thrasher it is recommended that the concaves be inverted in addi- 
tion to inserting the special clover or alfalfa sieves. 

PossiMlities of Seed Production in Cultivated Rows. — Too much 
must not be expected from the method of growing alfalfa de- 
scribed in these pages. There are large areas in and around the 
regions to which this method is adapted where no amount of cul- 
tivation and isolation of the plants will bring success. On the 
other hand, there are thousands of acres now lying idle which 
with intelligent management will yield profitable crops. Maxi- 
mum or bumper crops must not be expected under the prevailing 
conditions. 

The results obtained in the experiments thus far conducted with 
this metnod indicate that it gives especial promise in Utah, in 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 



461 



eastern Colorado, and in the western portions of Kansas, Nebraska 
and South Dakota. Yields of seed at the rate of 5 bushels to the 
acre have been obtained. The possibilities of the method when 
only individual plants of large seeding capacity are used is indi- 
cated by the fact that plants removed 30 inches each way from 
other plants have given yields which if equalled by an acre of 
such plants at the same distance apart would rival the seed yield 
produced under the most favorable conditions in the present seed- 
growing sections. 

The method is a comparatively new one and should be tested on 
its own merits in each area or even in each community. Where 
reasonable doubt as to its success under given conditions of rain- 
fall exists, growers should at first devote only a small area, say 
2 to 5 acres, to row cultivation, increasing the size of the field if 
the results justify it. 

Seed production under the best conditions is somewhat uncer- 
tain. The certainty of profitable yields of hay in most alfalfa- 
growing sections deters many farmers from letting their fields 
stand for seed. The light yield of hay procurable under ordi- 
nary conditions in the semi-arid regions makes the growing of 
seed a more promising undertaking than in sections where hay 
production is very profitable. It is probable that under very dry 
conditions the yield of hay in cultivated rows will also exceed 
that of a broad-casted stand. Complete data are not yet at 
nand, but calculated yields per acre based on the weight from a 
typical rod length of row are given in the accompanying table: 



Dry-land alfalfa (Brott's) 

Commercial sand luceria (S. P. I. No. 20451) 
Turkestan alfalfa (S. P. 1. No. 18751) 




Weig-ht of 



167 lbs. 
143 lbs. 
62 lbs. 



The yields of hay given in this table are from one cutting ob- 
tained on an upland field near Potter, Neb., sixteen months after 
seeding. The mean annual rainfall at Kimball, the nearest point 
for which precipitation records are available, is about 14 inches. 
In both 1905 and 1906 this mean was exceeded considerably, but 
in 1907 the total was 15 inches, while up to the end of September, 
1908, the record showed 13.85 inches. Lewis Brott, on whose farm 
this experiment is under way, secured 150 bushels of seed from a 
thinly sown, broad-casted field of 50 acres in 1906. This yield was 
obtained from an old stand. 

Developing Yaluahle Strains for Seed Production. — Experiments 



462 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

under way at the Arlington Experimental Farm, near Washing- 
ton, D. C, at Pullman, in the eastern part of the state of Wash- 
ington, and elsewhere tend to prove that heavy-seeding propensity 
is heritable to a marked degree. In consequence of this, a race 
of unusual excellence could readily be secured by propagation of 
the progeny of individuals selected on this basis. 

When alfalfa is grown in rows to permit of intertillage, it is 
much easier to make selections than in broad-casted stands, chief- 
ly because individuals in rows have better opportunity for expres- 
sion of their normal character. In addition, the comparative isola- 
tion of the plants gives readier access to them. 

At first thought it might appear that in thinning out stands of 
row-cultivated alfalfa, only individuals of the greatest seed-produc- 
ing capacity should be left, A second thought quickly reveals the 
fallacy of this idea, as the ultimate purpose of all alfalfa growing 
is hay production. Selection based on seeding habits alone will 
develop this side of the plant unduly at the expense of its forage- 
producing capacity. The highest type of alfalfa for use in areas 
where seed production is the primary purpose in growing the crop 
is one that combines satisfactory hay and seed producing quality 
in symmetrical proportions. 

It is recommended that the selection of desirable plants com- 
mence as soon as the preliminary seeding has developed plants 
large enough to show their value. The field should be inspected 
row by row, and seed of the selected plants should be gathered in 
advance of the regular harvest. The relatively small quantity of 
seed secured in this way should be sown with great care to make 
it cover the greatest possible area of ground. The plat of alfalfa 
thus secured will produce seed of much greater value than that 
obtained from unselected plants. If this method is carried out, 
materially increased crops of seed may be secured without de- 
tracting from the hay value of the strain. Indeed, both the hay 
and the seed producing capacity may be increased by the process. 

If it is impracticable to secure sufficient seed from selected 
plants for all of the new seedings that one desires to make, the 
selected seed should be planted separately, and that harvested 
from this plat should be used for subsequent seeding. This 
method will also afford an opportunity for demonstrating the rela- 
tive value of selected as compared with unselected seed. 

Conclusion. — The results obtained by farmers on a field scale, as 
well as of the experiments thus far conducted, indicate that the 
growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed in the semi-arid 
regions offers every promise of success. The method is recom- 
mended particularly for those sections where on account of the 



(GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 463 

light rainfall but one crop, or at best two crops, of alfalfa hay 
can be secured in each season. 

Next to the problem of providing and maintaining a firm, 
moist seed bed, the controlling of the weeds offers the greatest 
difficulty. This is especially true during the first season, when 
their rapid growth makes it difficult to control them by cultiva- 
tion owing to the danger of covering the small alfalfa plants. 

It is expected that the machinery now in use in most com- 
munities can be adapted to the growing of seed in rows. While 
the results indicate that the row method of culture will probably 
become an efficient factor in the development of the semi-arid 
regions, too much must not be expected of it. Those undertaking 
the work will be pioneers. To them will fall the task of develop- 
ing new devices and special adaptations of the implements at 
hand, upon which will depend in large measure the practical suc- 
cess of the method. 

The alfalfa plant requires but a small supply of moisture when 
seed setting is going on. Heavy seed crops are to a large extent 
dependent upon the prevalence during this time of a certain 
amount of dry weather t.nd heat. In many parts of the semi-arid 
regions an unusually favorable combination of these conditions is 
present. The power to regulate by surface tillage the supply of 
soil moisture makes the method of growing alfalfa in cultivated 
rows for seed of especial romise in those parts of the Great 
Plains, intermountain area, and other sections where the average 
annual rainfall ranges from 14 to 20 inches. 

Alfalfa in Dry Farming. — P. K. Blinn, of the Colo- 
rado agricultural college, thus tersely advises those 
attempting dry farming: 

If a farmer on the dry plains has a well that will furnish just 
enough water for fifty head of stock, it would be absurd for him 
to try to keep sixty or seventy head on the same supply of water; 
and it is equally ridiculous for him to attempt to crowd plants in 
soil where the moisture is limited. 

Some plants may develop with less moisture than others, but 
alfalfa is not one of these plants; on the other hand, it is con- 
ceded by all western farmers than an abundance of moisture is 
the key to success in growing alfalfa for hay. When it is well 
established, alfalfa will endure long droughts and still revive 
when water is applied; to that extent it is adapted to dry farming, 
and its deep-rooting tendency may enable the crop to grow without 
irrigation, if the roots can penetrate to moist soil. There are 
many localities on the plains where the run-off from heavy show- 



464 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ers could be collected and diverted by ditches upon soil suited to 
alfalfa. Often in a draw, where moisture from the surrounding 
prairie is inclined to center, good encouragement for seeding to 
alfalfa is offered. 

The number of plants to the acre that can be maintained in the 
dry farming district has not Deen determined; but at Rocky Ford, 
Col., in 1908, an alfalfa nursery plant, without irrigation for 
eleven previous months, produced at the rate of two and three- 
fifths tons per acre the first cutting; and then made a second cut- 
ting equally as good, that was left for seed. The plat had been 
seeded in 1907 to Turkestan alfalfa, and thinned to single plants 
twenty inches apart each way. It received one irrigation and 
was thoroughly cultivated that year. The growth in 1908 was 
made on the moisture that was stored and conserved in the soil, 
but such phenomenal yields can hardly be expected without irri- 
gation. In the favored spots, before mentioned, alfalfa can cer- 
tainly be grown if once established and properly managed. 

The growing of alfalfa seed offers great opportunities to the 
farmer on dry lands, because the fact has been well demonstrated 
that alfalfa yields seed best when the plant makes a slow, dwarfed 
growth, when it really lacks for moisture, but has enough to set 
and fill the seed. Seed grown under dry conditions has more 
vigor and vitality than seed produced with an excess of moisture, 
and it is usually free from dodder and other noxious weeds, if the 
field has had any cultural care. There is a demand for dry land 
alfalfa seed that far exceeds the supply. 

In establishing alfalfa for seed production, under dry conditions, 
it is recommended to sow in rows eighteen or twenty inches apart, 
with two to three pounds of good seed per acre. A thin, uniform 
stand is absolutely necessary, even to thinning, as in beet culture; 
but the stand can usually be regulated by the amount of seed 
sown. It has been found that plants twenty inches apart will 
support each other and not lodge or lay on the ground, as in 
thicker or thinner stands. With a good stooling variety like the 
rurkestan, plants six to twelve inches apart in the row are thick 
enough. If all the seed would germinate, one pound per acre 
would be ample, but it is difficult to sow a small quantity uni- 
formly in the row, and for seed production it might pay to space 
and thin the plants. 

The row system is essential, as it permits intertillage to eradi- 
cate weeds, and to conserve the moisture, and also allows deep 
cultivation to absorb winter storms, affording an opportunity to 
furrow out the rows and to direct or divert any surface water that 
may or may not be needed. It is the only system that will allow 
the tillage that is so essential to all dry farming. 



GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 465 

The four-row beet cultivator, with its weeding knives and other 
attachments, is an ideal tool for cultivating the crop. A four-row 
drill adapted to sowing alfalfa seed is needed to complete the 
equipment, but the ordinary beet drill, with the addition of an 
alfalfa or grass seeder attachment, can be modified to suit the 
work. The seed should be sown shallow, not over an inch deep, 
and good results have been secured with the common garden drill 
by marking out the ground with the rows gauged in sets of four, 
to correspond to the four-row cultivator. 

Where there is an opportunity to use irrigation or flood water, 
the field should be ditched in every other row, and the furrows 
"logged out" with a sled made of short logs, 8 to 10 inches in di- 
ameter, and from 3 to 4 feet long, spaced to fit two furrows, so 
that the water may be run through as quickly as possible, for the 
alfalfa crop for seed will need as little water as can be applied. 
A short rush of water after a sudden shower can be delivered 
over considerable ground if the field is properly ditched. 



BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STOR- 
ING HAY. 



Alfalfa hay east of the Missouri River ought al- 
ways to be put under cover. In very truth it ought 
to be put under cover in any climate humid enough 



.. 2X 12' PLATC 



. OVER-MAMG 6' 



2X6 NAIL GIRTS 



\ 



n 



SIDE EluEVATION OF 
PART OF FRAME 



to grow the crop without irrigation. When one 
builds a barn or shed for storing alfalfa he should 
consider a few basal truths. 

(466) 



BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY. 



467 




Desirable Conditions. — It is essential that tlie mow 
have depth. It is costly to roof a shallow mow. The 
mow should have no cross ties. Alfalfa is much 



468 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

easier put in with modern sling carriers if there are 
no cross ties to obstruct the working of the carrier. 
The roof must be strong if hay is taken in in large 
drafts. It must be of economical construction. 
It must be able to endure stress of wind and storm. 

The writer has designed hundreds of barns of 
varying types for situations scattered nearly all over 
America. After many years of experience he de- 
cides that for simple storage of hay the type shown 
on pages 466 and 467 is the best extant. It is as 
simple as can be, it is cheap to build. It may have 
round pole for posts, square timbers or be all of 
joists construction. It has not one brace or cross tie 
inside the hay mow. The outer braces are not in the 
way especially, as they occur only at intervals of 14' 
or 16^ They will not decay if they are covered on top 
and sides with a strip of galvanized steel roofing, 
bent to fit. The under side is best left uncovered. 
The foundation is of concrete piers molded in place 
and each one having an iron pin coming up several 
inches into the foot of the post. 

A floor ought to be provided. Sometimes a scaf- 
folding of round poles is laid down, putting the poles 
close enough to make a good air space under the 
hay. A concrete floor made water proof will serve 
if care is taken to put down very dry straw or hay 
at the beginning so as to make a layer all over the 
bottom. 

Shed for Baling. — Supposing hay to be baled from 
this barn, a shed or lean-to is provided on one side. 
Each crop may be baled as soon as it has thorough- 



BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY. 469 

ly gone through its sweat and the baled hay piled in 
the shed, the bales on edge, as much air space be- 
tween them as possible. A good wooden floor should 
raise the bales well above ground moisture. 

Siding. — This hay barn may be sided clear down 
or only part way. It is best to side clear down, since 
driving rains will damage the hay enough to make 
siding profitable. The nail girts are 2'x6', spiked in 
place, and the siding put on vertically. The roof is 
best perhaps of galvanized steel, or else of good shin- 
gles, though there are good ready-made roofings of 
asphaltum base. 

Frame. — Another illustration shows quite clearly 
the side of the frame with posts set 16' apart. The 
long braces support the plate so that it is as though 
posts were set only 8' apart. The box plate on which 
rafters rest should be strongly made. Use two pieces 
of 2x12'' stuff and the roof will keep in perfect shape. 

Driveway. — Hay may be taken up from a trans- 
verse driveway or from the end. If from the end it 
ought to face the East, or preferably the Southeast. 
The construction of the overhang is indicated in the 
drawing. Brace it strongly. If an overhang is pro- 
vided one can have also a transverse driveway and 
from it fill the barn till all is full except this drive- 
way, which can then be filled from outside. An over- 
hang of 6' width, the sheeting and roof extending 
out 24" farther, will protect a load of hay if the 
barn is turned away from the direction of storms. 



ALFALFA IN TEXAS. 

The overshadowing importance of Texas in its new 
agricultural development renders information con- 
cerning alfalfa growing in that vast commonwealth 
of unusual interest. A summary of the situation is 
thus presented through the kindness of Prof. H. H. 
Harrington, Director of the Texas Experiment Sta- 
tion at College Station : 

The oldest alfalfa fields in Texas are in the Rio Grande valley 
below El Paso, around Ysleta. Some fiolds there have been con- 
tinuously in alfalfa for 25 years, and with reseeding the ground 
has been in alfalfa for 40 years. 

The best area in Texas adapted to alfalfa growing would be 
very difficult to specify in explicit fashion. There are so many 
areas being developed to this plant, and the industry is compara- 
tively so new, that I could not say definitely as to the superiority 
of any particular section. I am inclined to think, however, that 
without irrigation the Red River valley in the Panhandle is the 
most desirable locality. Much of the Panhandle proper, espe- 
cially along the draws and in the valleys, is admirably adapted to 
growing alfalfa. The black lands of North Texas, from Dallas 
north particularly, seem well suited to the growth of alfalfa on 
land that is not affected by the cotton root rot. 

The largest development of alfalfa growing at the present time 
is in the Pecos Valley, in Ward County, at Barstow, and at Grand 
Falls, in Pecos County, and in the Toyah valley' in Reeves County. 

The question as to what part of the state would be foremost in 
seed production is susceptible of considerable conjecture. How- 
ever, it will probably be the Panhandle from Chillicothe north. 

As to the growth of alfalfa in Mexico across from Del Rio, I 
cannot say. The Lower i.io Grande soils, however, are growing 
alfalfa successfully at the present time, but the industry has not 
been established long enough to determine whether or not it can 
be carried on for a number of years successfully. They are likely 
to meet with some soils that will kill out the alfalfa from cotton 
root rot, just as the soil of Don Trevino failed. 

I have no data as to the definite relation between the lime con- 

(470) 



ALFALFA IN TEXAS. 471 

tent of soils and the growth of alfalfa. I am satisfied, however, 
that under other favorable conditions only a very small per- 
centage of lime is necessary — say three per cent of the carbonate. 
In Hays County and in Comal the amount of carbonate of lime in 
the soil is very high, some analyses which we have showing as 
much as 25 per cent. In the Pecos valley the percentage of sul- 
phate of lime, or gypsum, is very high, and such soil is admirably 
adapted to the growth of alfalfa, but that soil, unfortunately, con- 
tains a considerable quantity of alkali, mainly the chloride of 
soda or common salt, and a little carbonate of soda; but after one 
or two years' use with a sufficiency of water these soluble salts 
seem to be washed out, and then the soils remain as perhaps the 
best alfalfa soils in the state. I understand that these same con- 
ditions prevail around Roswell, New Mex. 

I would advise sowing in the fall as the best method of estab- 
lishing alfalfa fields in Texas. This, in the northern part of the 
state — say from the Texas & Pacific railroad north — may be done 
as early as August, and preferably not later than September; 
while in the southern part of the state sowing may take place as 
late as December. The thing to be sought is to get the alfalfa 
well started with a good growth before the freezing weather of 
winter. Of course, every one now knows that in what is known 
as the rain belt proper, the main difficulties with alfalfa during 
its first year are weeds and crab grass, so far as conditions in this 
state are concerned. It is therefore well if possible to have one 
year's clean cultivation of the land prior to putting it in alfalfa, 
and I regard it as essential that especially the summer immedi- 
ately preceding the seeding of the land to alfalfa in the fall must 
have been one of clean cultivation. The land also for a month 
before the time of seeding should have been well plowed, not nec- 
essarily deep, in the rain belt, but the surface preparation should 
be of the best. The disk harrow is the best implement for this 
purpose, and then keep the surface well stirred with an Acme 
harrow or with a weeder, in order that when a rain comes, seed- 
ing may take place soon thereafter. When the ground is caught 
in just the right condition, the seed may be sown broadcast or in 
drills, preferably the latter, although it is a little more trouble. 
A light roller over the land will then secure a better stand. 

In the spring if weeds and grass appear, it may be necessary to 
mow the alfalfa when it is five or six inches high, merely to kill 
the weeds and the grass. If the first summer happens to be a 
dry one the crop, after having yielded one to three cuttings, may 
fail and reseeding the following fall be necessary. This will not 
usually be the case, but it sometimes happens. The farmer 
however should not be necessarily discouraged. He may either 



472 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

harrow and reseed the spots that are most bare, or plow up the 
entire field and reseed it. After the first year if the alfalfa has 
done well it ought to be disked with a harrow, preferably after 
each cutting; certainly twice a year, setting the disk so as to cut 
about four inches, and lapping on the return round. Some prac- 
tice disking both ways, after which a smoothing harrow or a 
roller is passed over the field to smooth it. An alfalfa renovator 
may be used instead of the harrow. Even on irrigated land some 
cultivation is desired. 

I do not attach very much importance in this state at least, to 
the inoculation of the soil. I have never known a crop of alfalfa 
to fail here from neglect of this precaution. Most of our soils 
seem to be either naturally inoculated, or to become so very soon 
after the growth of alfalfa is begun. 

The number of cuttings varies from three to seven. I recently 
saw a 60-acre field cut the third time that produced at that cut- 
ting eighty tons of the prettiest alfalfa that I ever looked at. This 
was in the Toyah Valley. Their practice in haying is to windrow 
the alfalfa the second day after cutting, and then with buck 
rakes bale from the windrow in the field, being careful to throw 
aside any swaths that seem a little too green. I do not mean 
green as to color, but as to sap. Such alfalfa has all the leaves 
preserved and is as green and as fresh-looking in the bale as it 
is in the field. 

Of course this is quite a dry climate. In the rain belt I would 
advise cutting in the morning after the dew is off and windrow- 
ing next morning after the dew is off, and if it is to be stacked, 
it may be put up that afternoon. If it is to be baled, it should be 
given a little more time in the stack or shock, but this is not al- 
ways necessary. One season's experience is almost essential for 
successful alfalfa growing, and the intelligent farmer will soon 
learn to recognize and correct the difficulties of his particular 
locality. 



ALFALFA IN HAWAII. 

Interesting information as to alfalfa on one of 
our island possessions in the western seas comes thus 
from E. V. Wilcox, special agent in charge of the 
Hawaiian Experiment Station of the Department of 
Agriculture at Honolulu: 

This station has not published any bulletins on the cultivation 
of alfalfa, but the matter has received considerable of our atten- 
tion, and the crop is successfully grown in a number of localities. 
It may be interesting to learn that during last season a fairly 
good stand of alfalfa was obtained on the Parker Ranch, at an 
altitude of 4,700 feet, with a total annual rainfall of only two 
inches. The crop stood about 30 inches high when I last saw it 
in December. 

Where alfalfa stubble is promptly irrigated after each cutting, 
twelve crops per year are obtained, and in exceptional cases thir- 
teen. On a large dairy farm near Honolulu, alfalfa reaches the 
blooming stage and is cut every thirty days the year round. A 
crop has been made in 26 days. Thus far little attention has 
been given to the making of alfalfa hay, since alfalfa may be 
obtained green the year round. 

The greatest difficulty experienced in our islands in growing 
alfalfa is that furnished by cutworms. These pests eat off the 
young plants when about two or three inches high. It has been 
found best to plant new land to sorghum for a year or two, after 
which the cutworm attacks are not serious enough to interfere 
with the growth of alfalfa. 

In most localities in Hawaii alfalfa does not reach the height 
which it attains in the Rocky Mountain region or in the eastern 
states, but the stems are perhaps less woody, due to their rapid 
growth, and are abundantly furnished with leaves almost to the 
ground. The quality of the forage is therefore very good. Alfalfa 
is raised here chiefly for soiling dairy cows, but is also fed to 
pigs, horses and other stock. I have never known of a case of 
bloating caused by the feeding on green alfalfa or from pastur- 
ing on the young crop. It is not quite certain why we are free 
from this trouble. 

The area devoted to alfalfa is being continually increased. On 
the Parker Ranch one ton of seed was planted this spring and 
various other ranches are increasing their areas as fast as they 
are able to overcome the difficulties of getting the crop started. 

(473) 



ALFALFA IN ALGERIA. 

In France and Algeria, according to Bulletin 33 of 
Gouvernement General De L 'Algeria, deep plowing 
for alfalfa is urged. The soil should be stirred to a 
depth of at least 20 inches. There alfalfa is some- 
times drilled in rows 16'^ apart. The rate of seeding 
advised for Algeria is about 16 lbs. per acre when 
sown broadcast or 12 lbs. when sown in drills. Men- 
tion is made of a field where the yields of ' ' f ourraige 
frais'' or green fodder, in three or four cuttings in 
successive years made 8, 16, 22 and finally 32 tons 
per acre. In that land they have learned the need 
of lime and recommend large amounts, also of phos- 
phorus and advise the use of 1,000 lbs. per hectare 
or about 400 lbs. per acre of superphosphate. 

Mention is made also of the fact that there is a 
native race of alfalfa in the oases of the Sahara 
desert and that alfalfa from southwestern America 
thrives in Algeria better than seed from France. 

This bulletin states the peculiar fact that alfalfa 
thrives in Algeria in small fields, well enriched, well 
plowed, well cared for, but that it is not usually 
very successful in large fields. 



(474) 



VITALITY OF SEED. 



The United States Experiment Station Record, 
Vol. VI, No. 5, gives in a tabular form the result of 
an eleven years' test of the duration of the vitality 
of some agricultural seeds made by S* Samck, from 
which the following is taken. Well matured seed 
was selected, a portion of which was examined each 
year from 1883 to 1894. The unused portions were 
kept in paper bags in a dry airy room and seeds 
taken from them each succeeding year for the test. 





PERCENTAGE OP VITALITY. 


KINDS OF SEED. 


1 

year. 


2 
yrs. 


3 

yrs. 


4 

yrs. 


5 

yrs. 


6 

yrs. 


7 
yrs. 


8 

yrs. 


9 
yrs. 


10 

yrs. 


11 

yrs. 


Alfalfa 


94 
90 
73 
74 
95 
46 


91 
90 
64 

72 
90 
47 


87 
88 
51 
63 
90 
44 


75 
84 
37 
52 
88 
44 


72 
74 
15 
50 
86 
38 


71 

68 
7 

50 
79 
29 


68 
44 
6 
35 
66 
21 


66 
16 
5 
31 
39 
12 


63 
10 

3 
26 
15 

8 


59 
3 
3 

23 
1 
5 


,54 


Red Clover 

Alsike 


2 
3 


White Clover 

Timotliy 





Orchard g-rass .... 





It will be seen that in the first year of the experi- 
ment, out of 100 seeds of alfalfa planted, 94 germi- 
nated; of the same number of red clover, 90 germi- 
nated ; of alsike, 73 ; of white clover, 74 ; of timothy, 
95; of orchard grass, 46; while in the eleventh year 
but 54 out of the 100 seeds of alfalfa grew, 2 of red 
clover, 3 of alsike, 22 of white clover, and none of 
either timothy or orchard grass. According to these 
figures, age does not affect the vitality of alfalfa 
seed so much as it does the other seeds used in the 
experiment. No observations, however, were made 
by the experimenter regarding the strength of the 
plants from the old seed as compared with those 
from the new seed. 

(475)* 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA 
SOWING. 

Before sowing alfalfa some things must be known. 
Has the land lime enough? Test it by putting a 
little in a porcelain cup and pouring dilute muriatic 
acid over it. If it effervesces, or bubbles, even mod- 
erately, it has sufficient lime. Some soils that have 
lime enough for alfalfa will not visibly effervesce, 
however, so if any bubbling is seen one can rest as- 
sured that he has lime enough. 

He can guess at the matter by observation. Does 
the land grow red clover vigorously! Does it grow 
melilotus (sweet clover) naturally? Does it grow 
bluegrass spontaneously! Then it may have enough 
lime. Nevertheless, if no effervescence can be seen 
in either soil or subsoil one must suspect a lack of 
lime. If chestnut trees and pines grow, one must 
suspect a serious lime need. 

Liming, — Ground limestone is surely the best 
source of lime. From 4 to 8 tons to the acre, or 
more if it is conveniently at hand, should be used. 
In north Georgia on red clay loam soil I applied 
varying amounts from 7 tons to 17 tons per acre 
of rather coarsely-ground limestone. The strongest 
alfalfa, really wonderful, is on land having the most 
limestone. Four tons of finely-ground limestone has 

(476) 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 477 

often given good results, although I feel sure that 
more would do better. 

One must remember that lime is needed in both 
topsoil and subsoil. Apply half of it before plow- 
ing, the other half after plowing. Disk well to mix 
the lime through the soil. Apply lime at any time 
when the teams and men have leisure for the work. 
If it is done a little before time for sowing the 
seed, all the better. Do not forget that alfalfa roots 
can gather nitrogen only in the limed area of the 
soil, so get lime mixed all through the soil as deeply 
as is convenient. Bear in mind that lime stays 
where it is put ; it does not go down. For this work 
the deep disk plows, or tilling machines, are the 
best machines yet brought to the farmer. If these 
are not available, choose any disk or other plows 
that will run deeply. 

Of burned lime freely slaked, 2 tons to the acre 
usually give alfalfa. If it can be well distributed 
and well mixed through the soil more may be safely 
used, especially in strong clays where plenty of or- 
ganic matter can be turned under. I have seen 6 
tons of burned lime used to the acre, with deep plow- 
ing and much manure, and splendid alfalfa resulted. 
This was at the Soldiers' home at Knoxville, Tenn. 
Many can obtain burned lime more easily and eco- 
nomically than ground limestone. Let them use it. 
Good results will follow. Yet in comparison I have 
seldom seen limedust fail to give stronger alfalfa 
than burned lime. 

Method of Distribution. — There are now made 



47S ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

lime distributors that hold a tone of limedust and 
apply from 8 tons to the acre downward. Among 
these the Buckeye seems to be a desirable type and 
is giving satisfaction. One must caution the work- 
men to avoid leaving narrow strips unlimed. 

Other Essentials. — Other essentials are drainage, 
fertility, inoculation, and seed at the right time of 
year. These with limestone comprise all the essen- 
tial things. Writing this four years later than the 
main part of the book, I am struck with the truth 
that alfalfa loves manure. One can find by the 
thrift of the alfalfa the spots where manure is 
buried in the field. Make the land rich. A little 
manure, at least, is almost essential to success. If 
one does not have it from the stable let him grow 
it and turn it under in cowpeas, soy beans, crimson 
clover, melilotus or almost anything that will decay 
in the soil, legumes preferred. 

I wish I could tell how to grow alfalfa in the East 
and grow it without manure or vegetable matter in 
the soil, but I have not yet learned the trick. In- 
stead, I begin to fear that there is nothing new un- 
der the sun. Drainage, limestone, manure, inocula- 
tion — these, with seed sown at the right time, are all 
there are to alfalfa growing in the East. The prepa- 
ration of the soil, while important and even vital 
to getting a stand, is not so much an essential of 
alfalfa-growing as is the filling of the soil with plant 
food and letting the air into it. 

I receive many letters from would-be alfalfa- 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 479 

growers, some of tliem quite amusing, altliough ex- 
asperating. Often they will read thus : 

"I have a field that I wish to sow to alfalfa. It 
slopes to the west. It was in wheat this year and 
corn last year. Do you think alfalfa would grow 
well there? If so, how shall I sow it?" 

Such letters simply show how superficially these 
men have learned to think of their soils. To such 
queries one can only answer: ^^I do not know." 

The sort of letter that I love to get reads like this : 

*^My field is thoroughly drained. It is well limed 
with ground limestone. Muriatic acid applied to 
the soil will bring effervescence in any part. The 
soil has had much manure and is rich. How shall I 
proceed to get alfalfa ? " 

One can safely reply to this man: 

*^ Inoculate with soil from some successful alfalfa 
field or from a sweet clover patch. As fast as the 
inoculated earth is applied harrow to cover it from 
the sun. Make a fairly good seedbed and sow al- 
falfa in March, April, May, June, July or August. 
If you live to the southward sow it preferably in 
September or October. You are sure to succeed." 

The point I wish to make is that growing alfalfa 
is a soil matter almost altogether. There are many 
successful ways of preparing the land and sowing 
the seed. 

For the help of hurried farmers unversed in al- 
falfa culture I will now present a summary of some 
successful ways of sowing the alfalfa plant in vari- 
ous localities — a sort of ''rule of thumb." 



480 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Successful Practice in Ohio. — On Woodland Farm 
this is our habit: The land was last year in corn, 
carefully cultivated to keep it free from weeds. Ma- 
nure was applied to the corn. In the fall if con- 
venient, otherwise in winter or early spring, the 
land is well and deeply plowed. When spring opens 
and danger of hard freezing is over, but before the 
time of spring frosts has passed, probably the first 
week in April in the latitude of Columbus, we go on 
the land with the disk harrow. This is followed by 
the plank drag or smoother; then follows usually a 
spike-tooth harrow, which yet further levels and pul- 
verizes, then the drag again to make the land smooth 
for the drill. If one disking and dragging make a 
good seedbed that is all that is given. 

Then follows the drill with three compartments: 
one with alfalfa seed, one with beardless spring bar- 
ley, and one with fertilizer. The drill distributes 15 
to 20 pounds of alfalfa seed to the acre, one bushel 
or a little less of barley and 400 to 500 pounds to 
the acre of fertilizer. The fertilizer is either a high 
grade of acid phosphate or basic slag. We are yet 
uncertain which pays the better, although liking ex- 
tremely well the results of the basic slag. The al- 
falfa seed is usually dropped behind the drill, some- 
times in front of it. The plank drag follows the 
drill to leave the land level and to cover all the seed. 
With one team on the disk harrow, two on drags and 
one on the drill, the work is continuous and about 10 
acres a day are sown. The land has had inoculation 
from our having grown alfalfa all over the farm in 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 481 

past years. On new fields one must add inoculation 
to the list of things to be done, and on some fields 
liming. 

Sowing Alfalfa in the Cornbelt. — Let us recapitu- 
late these steps, which are needed anywhere east of 
the Mississippi River and along the 40th parallel: 

First, make the land rich with manure. 

Second, if it requires liming, lime it, at any time 
or season you prefer. Turn half the lime under, 
apply half after plowing. 

Third, plow the land deep, preferably some weeks 
before seeding. 

Fourth, get busy as soon as the land is ready to 
work in April. Harrow, drag and rake a seedbed 
reasonably fine and smooth. 

Fifth, distribute the inoculated soil and harrow it 
in. About 200 pounds to the acre will serve, sown 
broadcast; much more would be better. One must 
harrow to cover it as fast as it is sown or else sun- 
light may destroy the bacteria. 

Sixth, come on with the drill, sowing 15 to 20 
pounds of alfalfa seed, 3 pecks of beardless spring 
barley and 400 to 500 pounds of phosphatic fertilizer 
per acre, unless you are very sure that the land will 
not respond to phosphorus. 

Seventh, float the land smooth with a plank drag. 

Thus sown you will not fail once in twenty years 
to have alfalfa. Nor is it a slow or troublesome 
work, nor so very costly to do. 

Alternative Nurse-Crops in the Cornbelt. — Oats? 
I earnestly advise against their use; the growth is 



482 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA, 

too leafy, the plant too prone to lodge. One gets a 
far better stand, as a rule, to sow barley instead of 
oats. We have done considerable experimental work 
with winter rye, sown out of season in April or May 
as a nurse-crop for alfalfa. Some of the best stands 
we have ever had were secured in this manner. In 
midsummer the rye dies, leaving the land to the al- 
falfa, which then makes rapid growth. If rye is 
used, however, sow no more than half a bushel to the 
acre or else it will perhaps stool so that it will be- 
come too thick. Winter wheat sown in April or May 
at the rate of half a bushel or 3 pecks to the acre 
seems to do about the same as the rye ; it keeps down 
weeds and foxtail grass, does not head, makes in 
midsummer a fine, leafy hay of no very great 
amount, and dies then and gives the land to the 
alfalfa. 

Comparing these three permissible nurse-crops 
we are yet undetermined. The beardless barley 
gives us the most hay and seemingly perfect stands 
of alfalfa. The stands from the use of winter wheat 
and rye are perhaps even better. I advise the read- 
er to test the matter for himself, on his own soil, 
taking care, however, not to sow rye thicker than 
half a bushel to the acre. 

What to Do with the Nurse-Crops. — Watch the al- 
falfa and the nurse. If the latter shows any tend- 
ency to lodge and smother the alfalfa, cut it off 
immediately for hay. When the barley is fairly in 
head the alfalfa will be ready for its first cutting; 
that is, will have formed its basal shoots, ready to 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING, 483 

put out a new growth. Really, we cut the nurse-crop 
when the alfalfa is ready. This usually comes at the 
time when the barley is in head but before grain has 
formed. Do not, unless under exceptional condi- 
tions, allow the grain to ripen. This would weaken 
the alfalfa materially. 

Times of Sowing Considered. — Alfalfa is perhaps 
not hardy against March freezes, but hardy against 
the frosts of April. Foxtail grass and many weeds 
are killed by frost. Therefore, alfalfa sown the first 
week in April or thereabouts will make a cleaner 
stand than it will sown in May or June. Neverthe- 
less one can with success sow alfalfa in the cornbelt 
any time from March till the last of August, with 
the chances for success declining as he passes July, 
for then he will not get a root strong enough to with- 
stand the liftings of winter's frosts. 

Spring or Midsummer Seeding. — In land much in- 
fested with weeds, as are the lands of Illinois and 
some adjacent states, spring seeding is advised 
against because the strong growth of weeds injures 
the young alfalfa. In all the regions south of the 
Ohio River crabgrass and weeds (crabgrass mainly) 
come up to choke spring-sown alfalfa. In these 
regions then it may be best sown after midsummer, 
from July 15 to Sept. 1. In Illinois it is especially 
recommended that alfalfa be sown in early August. 
Let us consider this by regions. 

Sowing in Illinois. — In Illinois and similar lati- 
tudes the essentials are : 

First, the liming, if, as is likely, the land needs 
lime. 



484 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Second, the inoculation, which should be from the 
use of alfalfa soil in as liberal amounts as can be 
conveniently secured. 

Third, the seedbed. Make it fine and firm. Too 
much care can hardly be taken here, as it is not so 
easy to get small seeds to germinate as in the spring. 
Plow some time before seeding. Harrow, roll, har- 
row again, work the land down to a fine firm seed- 
bed, absolutely free from weeds. Then sow the seed. 
Differing from spring seeding, no nurse-crop is here 
admissible. One need not use more than 20 pounds 
of seed to the acre. Sow it in any manner con- 
venient and cover it an inch or a little less. Here 
comes in play a new machine, very successful for its 
purpose, the alfalfa drill. Several types are on the 
market. They are made with small disks that open 
tiny furrows for the seed and that cover it evenly 
and nicely. Any amount of seed desired may be 
sown. One can get a good stand with far less seed 
if he uses the drill than if he does not. I have seen 
stands almost too thick when only 5 pounds per acre 
of seed was used. Make the land very smooth for 
the drill. 

Fourth, the fertilization. Phosphorus always suits 
alfalfa. Add to the bonemeal or acid phosphate 
or basic slag, whichever is chosen, 50 to 100 pounds 
of nitrate of soda per acre. Do this unless you are 
sure that the land is rich enough to start the alfalfa 
off rapidly. It takes a little time for young alfalfa 
to get its bacteria to work at gathering nitrogen. 
The nitrate of soda comes in here as a splendid aid 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 485 

and pushes the alfalfa on fast and makes a strong 
root to withstand winter. The oncoming winter is 
the bugbear, so get the roots so big and strong that 
the frost cannot lift them out. The money invested 
in the fertilization, provided the soil is not quite 
rich, will be generously repaid over the next season. 

Fifth, do not disturb the young alfalfa. Do not 
clip it nor pasture it this year. Carefully exclude 
animals in winter. Let no foot fall on it before the 
middle of the following May. 

Previous Treatment for Midsummer Seeding. — 
The land may be enriched and planted to early po- 
tatoes, these kept well cultivated, dug early, and the 
land at once made ready for alfalfa. Great care 
must be taken to work it so thoroughly that no 
moisture is lost. It may be. a wheat stubble. In this 
instance, as soon as possible get the wheat oif ; run 
the manure spreader over the field; plow at once, 
harrowing each day what is plowed that day, and 
work it down soon to a hard firm moist seedbed. 
The field may be enriched, sown to spring barley, 
which will be cut off for hay, then plowed again and 
made ready for alfalfa. The field may be dedicated 
to alfalfa from the first, plowed in the spring, kept 
harrowed all through May, June and the first half 
of July, and then the alfalfa sown. 

Any one of these treatments will likely give suc- 
cess. The practical objection is that when nothing 
is sown upon the land it is a costly way of getting a 
stand. When the alfalfa follows a grain crop there 
is no loss of the land, but fear lest the soil moisture 



486 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

be too low to give sufficient fall growth to withstand 
winter's freezings. I verily believe that every- 
where north of the Ohio River spring seeding is 
best, provided one can keep his land quite free from 
weeds by clean cultivation of his corn the preceding 
year. I mean absolutely clean cultivation. Here 
the use of the Spalding deep plows helps, as many 
weed seeds are too deeply buried to sprout again. 

Fall Seeding a Mistake. — I do not like the term 
fall seeding, because it misleads people as to the na- 
ture of alfalfa. It is not at all like a grass that can 
live through winter just s.o it gets a toehold in the 
earth. Alfalfa must have firm rooting so that it will 
not be pulled up by frost. It is true that it is hardy 
against cold, but if the winter's freezings lift the 
roots out it usually perishes. Thus in the cornbelt 
September and October seedings usually fail. Sep- 
tember seeding will do in Tennessee and southward, 
and in the gulf states one can sow as late as Nov. 1 
and often get a good stand, although even there 
October seeding is better. 

Seeding in the Latitude of Kentucky. — In Ken- 
tucky summer grasses greatly trouble spring-sown 
alfalfa and it is usually most successfully sown in 
August or early September. The following points 
should be studied in Kentucky : Is the land really well 
drained? Discriminate between a sloping surface, 
giving surface drainage and a true soil drainage that 
takes the excess moisture from the subsoil. Thou- 
sands of miles of tile underdrains should be laid in 
the tier of states represented in this parallel. Exam- 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 487 

ine to see that the land has enough lime in it. I made 
hundreds of examinations of Kentucky soils on the 
limestone area and found few indeed that were not 
lacking lime. Fortunately today the state is quite well 
supplied with limestone grinding plants, and no one 
need delay the use of ground limestone, for it can 
be had conveniently and cheaply. Even at the Ken- 
tucky Experiment Station, situated on a magnificent 
soil type, additional lime doubled the yield of al- 
falfa. 

Having drainage and lime, look to fertility. In 
this state the cowpea grows well. It may be turned 
imder, the land at once firmed, made fine and sown 
to alfalfa. Use what stable manure can be spared 
to supplement the cowpeas. Then there must be in- 
oculation, and on most soil types a liberal applica- 
tion of phosphorus, presumably acid phosphate, as 
it is the cheapest and most generally available form. 
One should add to this 80 pounds per acre of nitrate 
of soda for immediate effect. Stands of alfalfa are 
assured by this plan. 

There are soil types in Kentucky, however, that 
grow alfalfa quite well when it is once established, 
but are so clayey and difficult to drain perfectly dry 
that they lift with the winter's freezes and thaws 
until they lift out the fall-sown plants. If the al- 
falfa goes safely through the first winter on these 
soils it gets root enough to hold through the second 
winter. These lands grow bluegrass spontaneously, 
but are helped by giving them more limestone. They 
make big alfalfa that is early crowded with blue- 



488 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

grass, wMcli after it becomes established produces 
much more luxuriantly than ever before. As there 
are thousands of good farmers on this soil type it is 
worth while for them to try to establish alfalfa. 

I suggest taking advantage of the fact that grass 
seeds do not live very long in the soil. Let the field 
be enriched well, giving what underdrainage it 
needs, and plant it to corn or tobacco. Keep the 
crop absolutely clean of crabgrass during the entire 
summer and fall. In winter plow as deeply as pos- 
sible so as to throw up a fresh soil to the surface. 
Half the lime should be turned under at this plow- 
ing, half applied afterward. Sow the alfalfa early, 
according to the season, but usually in March, as 
soon as danger of very hard freezes is over. Fer- 
tilize it heavily and do not omit the 80 pounds to the 
acre of nitrate of soda. Thus we will get a strong 
quick growth and a root strong enough to admit of 
harrowing, should crabgrass come in midsummer. I 
should test here the use of half a bushel of winter 
rye to the acre, sown out of season with the alfalfa, 
but I should sow half the field with no nurse-crop 
whatever, assuming that the preceding year's use 
of the land has been as described. Very thorough 
inoculation is a great help in making the alfalfa 
start oif vigorously, thus getting ahead of weeds and 
grasses. One would not dare to sow alfalfa in this 
mid-southern region during May or June. At that 
time weeds start so fast that I should fear they 
would overtake the alfalfa. 

Handling Spring-Sown Alfalfa, — A How the 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 489 

spring-sown alfalfa to grow untonclied for from 
forty-five to sixty days, or so long as it is making 
thrifty growth in height. When the time comes that 
it has ceased to stretch upward, look down at the 
ground and see if small shoots have appeared at the 
crowns, denoting its desire to make a new growth. 
If these shoots have come, cut the field at once, and 
cut it close to the earth. This invigorates the al- 
falfa, and it comes up stronger the second time. 
Watch it again and when it has stood forty to fifty 
days one can see again the cessation of growth with 
the coming of new shoots. Now cut it the second 
time. Eake off any hay that it may make. After 
this second cutting it ought to have a strong enough 
root for careful cultivation. 

Alfalfa can be harrowed the same year it is 
sown, if it is strong and deep-rooted, but one must 
do it with care not to loosen and draw out the plants. 
It is better to suffer the grasses than to tear out the 
alfalfa. It will, however, hold on astonishingly when 
it has grown well for sixty to eighty days. One 
must use discretion, and harrow the first year if the 
alfalfa is strongly rooted and crabgrass threatens, 
but do the work with care. Omit the harrowing if 
weeds do not seriously threaten. 

Establishing Alfalfa in Georgia. — In north 
Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee are mountain val- 
leys where hard limestone is abundant and fairly 
fertile clay loams abound. It is a land easily made 
very fertile, although at present quite generally im- 
poverished. In the north Georgia region is a beauti- 



490 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ful valley, where C. E. Buek owns a large tract 
called Kensington Farm. Mr. Buek is a manufac- 
turer of iron; the farm is a side-issue. I had the 
pleasure of helping establish alfalfa on this place, 
through the cordial co-operation of Mr. Buek and 
his efficient manager, C. E. Huffman. I have never 
in the world seen finer alfalfa than grows on part 
of Kensington Farm. We think that in the end we 
will make it all as fine. I learned quite a good many 
things in helping establish alfalfa at Kensington. 
The land, naturally fertile, had been kept in quite 
good heart by the use of manure from a large dairy. 
It was all deficient in lime. We set up a lime- 
grinding plant and ground the flinty limestone into 
coarse powder, some of it as coarse as cornmeal. 
We decided that large amounts of coarse stuff ap- 
plied would give more permanent results than lesser 
amounts of finely-ground material. To grind the 
limestone and spread it on the soil cost, the manager 
estimates, 90 cents per ton, not taking account of 
depreciation in the plant. We applied from 7 to 
about 20 tons to the acre of this material. Where 
we used the limedust most liberally we got the 
strongest, cleanest alfalfa. The grinding was ac- 
complished by using first a jaw crusher and next a 
swing-hammer pulverizer. Little breakage or delay 
was experienced in grinding up some 1,500 tons, al- 
though the hammers had to be renewed in the pul- 
verizer. 

. The general scheme of alfalfa seeding at Kensing 
ton has been to let alfalfa follow cowpeas. The 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 



491 



land is plowed, usually in August, with the Spalding 
deep tilling plows, running down probably 16" or 
more. At first we applied all of the lime after 
plowing. Later experience leads us to apply half 




DEEP 



TLOWIXG AND TURNING UNDER CORNSTALKS PREPARATORY 
TO ALFALFA SOWING— WOODLAND FARM. 



of it before plowing and half of it afterwards. We 
try always to have some manure on the land. We 
make a thorough seedbed and sow the seed in Sep- 
tember with no nurse-crop, inoculating thoroughly, 



492 ALFALFA FARMING IN i\MERICA. 

of course. The result has been splendid. We have 
used 500 pounds of acid phosphate to the acre and 
80 pounds of nitrate of soda at the time of growing, 
and each year afterward about 400 pounds of acid 
phosphate, sometimes in early spring, sometimes 
after taking off the first cutting. 

Nevertheless, we have made partial failures. 
Certain galled, washed and eroded hillsides that had 
grown nothing for decades we sowed to alfalfa. On 
some of these hillsides we had glorious success, bet- 
ter when they faced the south. To conquer a red 
gall in that Southland is a difficult thing. We did it 
by extra amounts of limestone, extra amounts of 
manure and fertilization as well. On certain galled 
hillsides that faced the north we did not succeed so 
well because the frosts of winter lifted out our 
young plants. There we think August seeding, or 
else spring seeding, would be better. On some of 
the most stubbornly barren spots we are sowing 
melilotus, which seems to thrive. Eed galls are a 
soil mystery, not yet fully solved, their barrenness 
being due perhaps to the union of their phosphorus 
with iron. However, we have some of the worst 
scarred hillsides carpeted with luxuriant alfalfa, 
erosion absolutely stopped and the land, once worse 
than worthless, a good source of profit. 

Of the behavior of alfalfa at Kensington Mr. 
Huffman remarked: 

''I know two things: first, that in establishing 
alfalfa here one one must do well each and every 
part of the work; he cannot leave one thing undone. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALB^A SOWING. 49^ 

Second, the alfalfa must have its lime, manure, its 
phosphorus, its good seedbed, its inoculation. Given 
these things, it is the easiest crop to grow that I 
know, and the most profitable. I know also that 
one cannot tell what alfalfa is going to do before 
the second year. It may look most unpromising 
the first year and splendid the year following.'' 

Alfalfa in Middle Georgia, — Loring Brown grows 
alfalfa near Atlanta with splendid success. The 
soil is typical of a vast region of red clays. He 
teaches the use of abundant supplies of lime, prefer- 
ably ground limestone, which is now available at 
reasonable rates. He also grows cowpeas, which 
he feeds well to make a strong growth for turning 
under. . He disks and turns under the cowpeas in 
late August, and then thoroughly works the land to 
make a good seedbed. He uses inoculated soil and 
applies 600 pounds of acid phosphate, 300 pounds 
of bonemeal and 100 pounds of potash per acre. 
Now comes the astonishing part of his advice — the 
use of 50 pounds of seed to the acre. This he says 
makes so thick a stand that crabgrass can get no 
foothold the next year. He sows in September or 
October and cuts the next year from 4 to 10 tons 
per acre of hay. Personally, I believe half the 
amount of seed would give as thick a stand, and that 
it pays in any case to harrow alfalfa once or twice 
in summer in that latitude. He top-dresses with 
acid phosphate some time during the year, usually 
after the first cutting, I think. 

Loring Brown has a dairy and also many fowls. 



494 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

His wonderful success with alfalfa is due in part 
to the manure he has made; conversely the success 
of the fowls and cows is largely due to the alfalfa 
that they have had. He is a good man, doing a good 
work in spreading the gospel of intensive agricul- 
ture in the South. Costly as is his preparation of 
the land, he gets it all back, with interest, the first 
year afterward. 

Melilotus as a Preparation for Alfalfa. — Since we 
are considering the South, with its quite general 
lack of humus in the soil, we may as well glance at 
the splendid capabilities of the melilotus plant. 
Cousin to alfalfa, having the same bacteria and 
somewhat the same root system, it is yet curiously 
enough able to get along with little or no humus in 
the soil. This I have not yet been able ordinarily 
to accomplish with alfalfa. Only in some excep- 
tional instances does it grow strongly in soils defi- 
cient in humus. Thus melilotus is able to prepare 
the way for alfalfa. It needs all the things that 
alfalfa needs, excepting that it does not demand 
manure and will grow quite well on very hard soils. 
I have even seen it growing vigorously on the lime- 
stone rocks of Alabama. It has been demonstrated 
that a strong growth of melilotus turned under 
makes a splendid preparation for alfalfa. It can 
be established anywhere that the land can be thor- 
oughly limed. It makes good pasture and hay of 
nearly the same value as alfalfa ; it enriches the soil 
and paves the way for alfalfa. It is therefore well 
worth considering in any scheme of soil-building in 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 495 

lands where manure is not easy to get. The Melilo- 
tns alba, or white sweet clover, is the strongest 
growing species and best worth considering. The 
yellow-blooming sort makes a finer-stemmed hay 
and might perhaps sell a little better. They are 
probably of abont eqnal feeding value. 

Melilotus on the Lime Lands of the South. — In 
the lime soils of Mississippi and Alabama melilotus 
grows spontaneously, although it is not a native. 
In truth, it is said that it was first brought to the 
lime lands from Chile, South America. It has now 
overspread most of the region and is growing on 
the lime soils. Mixed with Johnson grass, it makes 
splendid pasture and hay. It is recognized that 
cattle pastured on these mixed pastures thrive re- 
markably well. Melilotus sown on worn black lime 
soils and grown for two years, the last growth 
turned under, has advanced the yield of corn from 
18 bushels to 55 bushels per acre. At the present 
time, curiously enough, melilotus is little sown on 
these lands. It is expected to come in of its own 
accord, if it comes at all. Nor has there been devel- 
oped a well recognized market for melilotus hay. 
Instead most farmers on the limy black soils try to 
grow alfalfa, with varying degrees of success, when 
they might have absolute success with melilotus. 

Alfalfa on the Lime or Prairie Lands of Alabama 
and Mississippi. — A strip of limestone, soft, white 
and easily disintegrating, called Selma chalk, ex- 
tends down the eastern edge of Mississippi, across 
into Alabama and eastward to a little south of Mont- 



496 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

gomery. On this chalk or limestone rests usually 
a black soil, varying in depth from a few inches to 
many feet^ termed Houston clay. A sub-variety is 
known as Trinity clay. These are the somewhat 
famous lime lands of the prairie belt of the two 
states. A similar soft limestone is found in Geor- 
gia. Within recent years much has been written of 
these lands for alfalfa growing. Naturally they are 
among the best lands of the world and have marvel- 
ous durability under continuous cropping. They 
vary much in desirability, some being too shallow, 
some fully charged with lime and some lightly so, 
or even deficient in lime. I know of no other soils 
east of the Missouri Eiver so full of lime as are the 
best of these black belt lands. 

Having grown melilotus, they are usually natu^ 
rally inoculated for alfalfa. Being rich in phos- 
phorus (or assumed to be rich) none is ever applied; 
in fact, the only thing done is to sow the seed and 
reap the crops. There is but one serious fault in 
these lands : they are underlaid by the watertight 
chalk in a climate of excessive rains. The black 
soils fill with water, and alfalfa suffers, perhaps 
dies. In winter or early spring when it would like 
to grow the land is too waterlogged to permit 
growth. I have gone in April from alfalfa in the 
mountains of north Georgia, leaving the crop 30 
inches high and nearly ready for the mowers, sev- 
eral hundreds of miles south to the lime lands to 
find the alfalfa there less than half as high and 
waiting for the land to dry out before it would 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 497 

grow. Naturally the lime soils are far riclier than 
the soil in Georgia. Drainage made the difference. 
The black lime soils are very similar to our best 
black soils of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; they need 
underdrainage with tiles fully as much as did our 
soils. Happily, as I write, ditching machines are 
beginning the work. There seems no physical ob- 
stacle to drainage. It is easier than it was in Ohio ; 
the fall is ample, and outlets are good as a rule. I 
also have an idea that these black soils, where they 
have grown continuous crops of corn and cotton, in 
some instances for eighty years, must be depleted in 
their phosphorus content, at least in the available 
phosphorus. I am undertaking to learn by exper- 
iment if this is not true. Till the present time 
no fertilization whatever has ever been given them. 
They respond marvelously to stable manures we 
know, but manures are always in limited supply on 
plantations. 

Spring seeding is almost universally practiced in 
the black soils, for the reason given that the lands 
are wet and may through frost lift the young plants 
in winter. After underdrainage fall seeding can be 
practiced and I think with perfect success and far 
greater freedom from crabgrass. 

Making Alfalfa Hay in the Prairie Lands. — Many 
alfalfa-growers here make their hay very cheaply. 
It is their practice to let hay dry quite thoroughly 
before raking. They are not strenuous to save all 
the leaves, for the hay is going to a market that does 
not highly regard alfalfa leaves. Sweep rakes gather 



498 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the windrows into large bunches or cocks. Thence 
the rakes take it to power hay presses or balers and 
it is compressed lightly into bales at the rate of 20 
to 30 tons per day. It is f onnd best not to make the 
bales very large or heavy. It is then loosely piled 
to let the air circulate through the bales as much as 
possible and sent to market. The human hand has 
not moved the hay until it is thrown into the hay 
press. It is estimated that when things work well 
alfalfa is taken from the green state to the finished 
bale for under $1 per ton. Naturally, bad weather 
interferes with this system of haymaking, and 
often the quality of hay thus secured is inferior, a 
large proportion of the leaves having been left in 
the field. The plan may be the best one for the pres- 
ent time on large plantations with insufficient labor, 
and for a market not very critical. Baling hay from 
the windrow would hardly succeed under northern 
skies, as the heat of the sun is so much less and the 
latent moisture is so much harder to dry out. 

Johnson Grass and Alfalfa. — In this region one 
sees a great deal of that rank strong-growing peren- 
nial grass called Johnson grass. It is usually mas- 
ter of all other crops and has taken possession of 
many a plantation. Alfalfa grows well with it and 
gains on it. Grown together neither yields alto- 
gether, but alfalfa has rather the better of the con- 
test. Alfalfa and Johnson grass hay mixed make 
admirable forage. 

Selma Chalk as a Source of Limestone, — The soft, 
easily decomposed limestone called Selma chalk, 



SUMMARY OP ALFALFA SOWING. 499 

usually needs no grinding to make it decompose in 
the soil. If it is broken into fragments as coarse 
as eggs it will in a year nearly disappear from sight. 
It could be loaded on cars with steam shovels for 
probably 25 cents per ton and sent out to farmers 
not within reach of the lime hills. Used liberally 
on the loams, clay and sandy soils of the surround- 
ing region, it would marvelously promote their abil- 
ity to grow legumes of all sorts, even to alfalfa. At 
Macon, Miss., E. V. Yates covered a plot of sandy 
well enriched soil an inch deep with this decomposed 
unpulverized limestone, and sowed it to alfalfa. The 
result was splendid, the alfalfa growing there taller, 
more thrifty and more healthy than in the limestone 
prairie soils near by. The sandy soil was almost 
perfectly drained, and that is the key to his suc- 
cess. I hope to live to see millions of tons of this 
so easily quarried limestone used on the lands of 
Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. 

Alfalfa in the Delta of the Mississippi River, — 
For some years I co-operated with Bolton Smith in 
an endeavor to renew the life of a number of dead 
plantations in Louisiana. It was a vast tract of 
abandoned land, abandoned partly because of dis- 
couragement concerning the cotton boll weevil and 
largely because of soil difficulties. The land belonged 
to a syndicate of Scots. My part of the work was 
to study the soils and how to renew them. I learned 
that the land was a dense, very fine clay, deposited 
by overflows of the Mississippi River, with a good 
deal of lime, phosphorus and potash in it but very 



500 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

deficient in liumus and nitrogen. I hoped that al- 
falfa might grow npon it. As an indication, our 
manager, G. P. Blair, had established a few acres 
on a rich old horse pasture. This looked fairly good. 
Personally I felt that with so much lime in the soil, 
and also phosphorus and potash, it ought not to be 
very difficult of restoration. 

We began the work by opening the old drainage 
canals. We were 80 feet above the Gulf of Mexico 
and hundreds of miles distant. This shows how flat 
our land was. It was fascinating work opening the 
old canals, some of them antedating the war and ap- 
parently not cleaned since then. With the water off 
the land, we started the plows. The soil was very 
clammy and dead. It is a soil type difficult to man- 
age. It is usually plowed with water in the fur- 
rows, and in fact is hard to plow at any other time. 
We planted corn the first year, with soy beans and 
cowpeas also. The thin furrow slices turned up 
wet bake into brick, but the first shower loosens 
them and crumbles them into ^^ buckshot," hence the 
name of buckshot soil. Our corn, even with nitrate 
of soda fed to it, was far from good. Perhaps it 
made 20 bushels to the acre. We needed drain tiles 
and in fact we laid a few strings of them, with good 
results, but there was neither time nor money for 
much underdrainage. The Scots had not much faith 
and no desire to put much money into the demon- 
stration farm. 

Despairing of tiles I turned to surface drainage. 
If we could throw up the land in beds 2 rods wide 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 501 

and 2 feet high, connecting the deep furrows be- 
tween the beds with onr open ditches, we might grow 
alfalfa, I hoped. It was impossible to do this work 
before the land became thoroughly dry, since plows 
would not scour in the half-dried clay. In July 
came opportunity: the land was dry. With large 
d_sc plows heavily weighted and drawn by six mules 
we broke the land, turning it up into beds 2 rods 
wide. The furrows I cleaned out with a road ma- 
chine. With a great deal of labor I made these beds 
nicely rounded and smooth, like the best turnpikes. 
Eains came and the clods, nearly as hard as stone, 
dissolved and we got a seedbed. 

On part of the field we put a heavy application 
of manure from the old stable; on another part I 
used phosphate fertilizers liberally. In October I 
sowed the seed. Inoculation is natural in the buck- 
shot soils. The result was beautiful, nearly perfect 
alfalfa. Seldom have I seen better anywhere in the 
world, although I have seen it grow taller on some 
soils. The astonishing thing was that we could never 
trace the line where we had put the manure, nor 
find any evidence of the other fertilizers. 

This was one place where alfalfa through its bac- 
teria received from the air all the nitrogen that it 
needed. A marvelous thing was that the alfalfa 
grew as vigorously in the bottom of our dead furrow, 
where the soil had been removed to a depth of about 
18", as it did anywhere, and inoculation even there 
was immediate. Naturally, after a time the best al- 
falfa was on the ridges, as the furrows were slowly 
emptied after hard rains. 



502 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

We sold the alfalfa hay for $20 a ton in the field 
and mowed it five or six times a year, although the 
midsummer cuttings might yield little hay because 
of heat and drouth. Through an accident Mr. Blair 
was unable to continue the administration and C. E. 
Speed carried on the work. We disked and har- 
rowed the alfalfa twice or more during the year and 
it retained its thrift perfectly. We plowed some 
alfalfa sod and planted it to corn. That yielded 
more than 80 bushels to the acre. 

Alfalfa had shown the way to soil redemption of 
all of this vast delta region, shown the way to peo- 
ple the land with intelligent, home-making farmers. 
Under Mr. Speed's administration we grew alfalfa, 
peanuts, corn, soy beans, cowpeas, pigs, goats and 
cattle. He made the place pay handsomely until 
the Scots sold it to go into rice planting. I know 
of no more splendid illustration of what alfalfa can 
do in the way of soil restoration than this, but there 
are few soils with enough lime, potash and phos- 
phorus already in them. I have nowhere else seen 
a soil that would not smile when tickled with stable 
manure and alfalfa roots. For such things this soil 
seemed ungrateful. 

There was much sandy loam on a neighboring 
plantation. This was reputed to be unfit for alfalfa. 
We learned that it was not naturally inoculated, so 
we had an Italian tenant inoculate and sow a field. 
The result was magnificent and the alfalfa grew 
taller than usual on our so-called buckshot soil. 
Later my friend, Mrs. Vinyard Scott, sowed alfalfa 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 503 

on sandy loam with encouraging success, her alfalfa 
growing nearly 3' high. Unhappily, all of these 
fields went under 12' of water in the spring of 1912, 
but that is not a catastrophe to he seen again in my 
lifetime, probably. It is at least definitely proved 
that alfalfa is well adapted to most of the alluvial 
soils of the delta region along the Mississippi Eiver. 
Few if any of these soils need lime. Strangely 
enough, we failed absolutely to grow melilotus on 
this same soil, I do not know why, but we did not 
need the plant, since we had the better one, alfalfa. 
Lespedeza grew luxuriantly and we made hay from 
it as well as from alfalfa. 

Alfalfa on Woodland Farm. — Naturally one knows 
most of his own farm, and some things that we have 
learned since the first edition of this book was 
printed may be helpful. We have in no essential 
tiling changed our manner of farm practice. We 
continue to grow alfalfa for four or more years oh 
the land, followed then by two years of corn, the 
second year with manure and back to alfalfa again. 
This is our plan, but circumstances sometimes modi- 
fy it. We usually cut our alfalfa but three times, 
learning that a strong growth left standing results 
in much less winterkilling and makes a far better 
growth the following season. The year 1911 was, 
however, an unhappy one for alfalfa in Ohio. A 
good first cutting was taken, then followed unprece- 
dented heat and drouth, with a plague of grasshop- 
pers that ate off the buds of the young alfalfa as 
fast as they appeared. The result was that our 



504 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

barns were not full wlien September came and at 
tliat time stood a beautiful growth of alfalfa, 2' liigii. 
The temptation was too strong; we cut over nearly 
all the meadows and secured a lot of prime hay. Fol- 
lowed then the hardest winter ever known here with 
ice in hard sheets over the earth for weeks, and in- 
tense cold. This resulted in killing a large part of 
the alfalfa that had been cut the fourth time. Where 
it was cut but three times, and went into winter 
with a strong growth standing, there was little or 
no winterkilling. One could easily trace the path of 
the mowers. On one of our farms, a 60-acre field, 
was killed outright; on another farm 40 acres was 
seriously crippled and an 18-acre field destroyed. 
There were, however, interesting lessons. In the 60- 
acre field belonging to my brother we had excavated 
a ditch with horses and scrapers, afterward plac- 
ing a tile deep under the bottom of it. This soil 
has in its subsoil many small pebbles and particles 
of carbonate of lime. We left the raw clay, with 
these lime fragments in it, on the surface of a strip 
a rod or so wide and of some length. Alfalfa had 
grown especially well in this spot, but we had given 
it no notice until after the freeze, when we found 
that the alfalfa growing here, in the midst of so 
much carbonate of lime, had not winterkilled, al- 
though cut as close as the reat and at the same time. 
There seemed here a striking lesson of the preser- 
vative effects of limestone on alfalfa plants. Maybe 
the lesson learned was worth all that the disaster 
had cost us, although the 60-acre field had the year 




CO — - 

CO c ; 






3 - ^ 



cr? t- 








SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 505 

before made above $60 worth of hay per acre, be- 
sides a lot kept at home for feeding a dairy herd. 

Lest one might think this behavior of the alfalfa 
on the lime-clay accidental, I will say that there were 
other places in the field where ditches had been dng 
to great depth and the pebbles and subsoil thrown 
out; wherever these appeared the alfalfa survived. 
We had not supposed that the field was in need of 
lime, since there is so much of it down only about 
16", but we now see that could we plow deep enough 
to turn up this lime-impregnated subsoil we could 
greatly benefit the field. With a deep-tilling plow 
we can reach a part of this material, and shall do so. 

Pliospliorus for Old Alfalfa Fields. — One part of 
the field at the home farm was not mowed the fourth 
time in the fall of 1911, the reason being that the 
growth was too poor to warrant it. This part did 
not winterkill and there was a thick, even stand. It 
is a corner of the field remote from barns. In our 
father's day it had little manure; since his death 
it has had little. Studying this corner at the time of 
the first cutting, I was disappointed in its growth. 
The alfalfa was too short. Something was lacking. 
What was it? I suspected a deficiency of phosphorus. 
We had made a practice of going over our alfalfa 
meadows with acid phosphate each year, allowing 
al)out 300 pounds to the acre. This corner had for 
some reason missed getting its proper share. The 
first cutting of hay would have satisfied some; it 
made more than a ton to the acre, yet to my eye 
something was wrong. 



5U6 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Our first step was to put in the spring-tootli alfal- 
fa harrow and loosen the surface, where little fox- 
tail grass was just showing. This was done imme- 
diately after the hay was taken away. Then fol- 
lowed the fertilizer distributor with basic slag at 
the rate of 500 pounds per acre, as nearly as we 
could estimate, putting it on in strips and leaving 




THE SPRING-TOOTH ALFALFA HARROW. 

strips unfertilized. For comparison, we also used 
acid phosphate, in similar strips. The field was 
then harrowed again crossways with the alfalfa 
harrow. This turned over every inch of the soil, 
running about 3" deep, and left a clean surface. Dry 
weather followed and the result was not so striking, 
as we had hoped to see, until after the next cutting 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 507 

had been taken; then came good rains, dissolving 
the fertilizers, and it was as though a miracle had 
occurred. The alfalfa stood in tall, thrifty fresh- 
colored ridges where the fertilizer had been put; it 
remained healthy but small where it had not been 
fed. While we did not weigh the strips separately, 
I have no doubt that the fertilization more than 
doubled the yield of alfalfa. A dollar spent in phos- 
phorus for this field would return at least $4 or 
$5. ' 

The lesson was not new; it was merely striking, 
and it illustrates the fact that we can not get the 
maximum profit from alfalfa unless we feed it ; that 
practically all the lands of the United States are 
hungry for phosphorus ; that alfalfa bacteria can 
not appropriate atmospheric nitrogen well unless 
they too have plenty of phosphorus with which to 
work. That alfalfa got no nitrogen from us ; it gave 
us, after being fed with phosphorus, twice the nitro- 
gen that we had before. Under our system of farm- 
ing, as we feed the alfalfa hay to animals, we keep at 
home much of the fertility thus gained. 

Basic Slag, Acid Phosphate or Raw Rock Phos- 
phate. — Admitting that we can make large profit by 
purchasing phosphorus in some form, how shall we 
best buy it? We admit that we are yet undetermined 
in this matter. We have used three carloads of 
fine-ground Tennessee phosphatic rock and think 
that we got results from its use. We put it out 
directly on the land at the rate of 1,000 pounds per 
acre, followed by spreading manure over the land 



508 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and turning all under. Untreated pliospliatic rock 
becomes available only by the action of the decay 
of vegetable matter in the soil, and it is probable 
that the phosphate should be in intimate contact with 
the decaying vegetable matter. It seems to me that 
this substance should always be used in stables, 
sprinkled over the manure. Unhappily we left no 
check strips to determine the effect of the phos- 
phorus that we applied, so we do not know. Dr. 
Cyril G. Hopkins in Illinois gets undoubted results 
from turning under raw phosphate in connection 
with green manures or stable manures. Prof. C. E. 
Thorne of Ohio gets undoubted results when it is 
used in connection with manure, in intimate contact. 
Theoretically the raw phosphate, very finely ground, 
is the material to buy for soil-building. One gets 
about four times as much of the element phosphorus 
for his dollar in raw rock phosphates as in any other 
form. He should be sure that he gets the fine- 
ground material — the finer the better. In my 
opinion he should then as much as is possible use it 
in his stables, in boxstalls, directly on manures. 
Thus used, it seems always to become available. 

Immediately Available Phosphates. — -Neverthe- 
less, we shall continue the use of immediately avail- 
able phosphates for starting alfalfa and for feeding 
it year by year after it is established. For this use 
nothing seems quicker than acid phosphate, which 
is the raw rock treated with sulphuric acid. It is 
so soluble that even if it is not harrowed in it will 
give results. Basic slag, when it can be harrowed 




M. 




1. Alfalfa with manure and phosphorus — Woodland Farm. 2. Alfalfa cut but 
three times in 1911— unharmed by the hard winter of 1912. 3. Effect of 
''utting too late in the fall — four cuttings in one year — Woodland Farm. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA oOWING. 509 

into the soil, seems nearly as prompt in action, and, 
as it carries a large percentage of carbonate of 
lime, it serves a double jjurpose in the soil. It was 
notable in 1912 that where we nsed basic slag the 
alfalfa while growing rapidly had a darker color 
than where we used acid phosphate; it had in fact 
gathered more nitrogen from the air because the 
lime in the slag helped the bacteria do their woik. 
We have tested applications of raw rock phosphates 
direct as a top-dressing of the meadow with unsatis- 
factory results; in fact, on the very land where we 
secured such splendid effects from both acid phos- 
phate and basic slag, we had two years before ap- 
plied 800 pounds to the acre of raw phosphate, so 
it seems clear that for annual applications to alfalfa 
meadows the immediately available carriers of phos- 
phorus are preferable, and, in fact, indispensable. 

Maintaining Fertility on Woodland Farm. — Our 
farm is devoted chiefly to the production of mut- 
ton. We buy lambs in the fall and fatten them dur- 
ing the winter, feeding our alfalfa hay, and corn. 
We feed 1,400 lambs and make a gain on each one of 
about 50 pounds, counting wool and live weight. 
Thus the farm produces about 70,000 pounds of 
growth on the lambs each year. This we sell away 
from the land. There is a serious drain of nitrogen 
and phosphorus — the nitrogen in the flesh and blood 
and the phosphorus in all parts of the animals. The 
nitrogen comes, of course, mainly from the alfalfa 
consumed; this does not trouble us in the least; 
over the farm is the vast store of atmospheric nitro- 



510 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

gen, and we can draw on this freely whenever we 
wish, so long as we have alfalfa growing in well- 
aerated soil, its roots close to limestone and sup- 
plied with phosphorus ; but how about the drain of 
phosphorus in 70,000 pounds of living animals 1 The 
body of a lamb contains about .005 per cent of the 
element phosphorus, more or less, according to its 
fatness. Thus we sell away from the farm each year 
in mutton alone about 350 pounds of phosphorus, 
equivalent to about 800 pounds of phosphoric acid to 
replace which would require the purchase of 5,000 
pounds of 16 per cent acid phosphate. Now we know 
that when we add phosphorus to the soil we do not 
get it all back in the crop; that is impossible, so to 
be on the safe side we ought to purchase, for mak- 
ing up this drain alone, at least five tons of 16 per 
cent acid phosphate per year, or its equivalent in 
some other carrier of phosphorus. And as our farm 
is not as fertile as it would be profitable to make it, 
we decided to apply phosphorus yearly in liberal 
amounts to nearly every acre of land bearing alfalfa. 
There are small areas on the farm where phosphatic 
fertilizers do not show an increase. Ordinarily the 
use of 400 pounds per acre of 16 per cent acid phos- 
phate has given us much more than a ton of hay in- 
crease in yield the year it has been applied, and far 
stronger and better alfalfa the succeeding year. 

The purchase of Nitrogen. — Thus far we have seen 
little need of more nitrogen than we produce on the 
land. In fact, the nitrogen content of our soils is ap- 
parently far in excess of what it was when we began 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 511 

[g alfalfa. One can afford to be liberal in his 
purchases of phosphorus when this is the one ele- 
ment that he must buy. We have had no difficulty 
in growing corn on alfalfa sod to a maximum yield 
of more than 100 bushels of shelled corn per acre 
over a 50-acre block, which nearly satisfies us that 
we are on the right road. 

Potash for Alfalfa, — On Woodland Farm are cer- 
tain low spots, once pond bottoms, with black soil 
and appearing rich, that are so deficient in potas- 
sium that they have refused to grow corn or alfalfa 
without potash. This substance works a miracle on 
these spots and makes corn ear splendidly and al- 
falfa show fine thrift. We use commonly muriate 
of potash, once in three or four years, at the rate of 
200 pounds to the acre. On our clay soils we note 
no need of this compound. Each man must experi- 
ment for himself in order to know what his own 
soil type lacks ; nearly always it will be phosphorus, 
occasionally potassium and usually nitrogen as well. 

Weeds, Foxtail, Crahgrass and the Alfalfa Har- 
row. — Foxtail will come in alfalfa meadows despite 
all one's care. It may do little harm; it may seri- 
ously choke the alfalfa. Crabgrass comes less often, 
and is worse when it comes. Of weeds only a few 
trouble ; the broad-leaved plantain is one of the most 
common. Usually it is a sign of needed underdrain- 
age. We have tested nearly all modes of harrowing 
alfalfa to rid it of grass. The disc is the most com- 
mon implement. We found it efficient enough but it 
decreased the yield of the alfalfa in some instances 



512 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tlirougii injury to the crowns. We tested the spike- 
tooth arrangements; they were not satisfactory be- 
cause they wound up with grass too rapidly. John 
M. Jamison, of Ohio, took his spring-tooth harrow 
to the blacksmith and had the points of the teeth 
made narrow and sharp, when, presto ! the trick was 
done. The perfect implement for cultivating alfalfa 
is now in our hands, since manufacturers are mak- 
ing the tool in any desired width. This alfalfa har- 
row will pull out any sort of grass and not hurt the 
alfalfa. The time to use it is just after taking off 
the first crop. Eake the land very clean. Go over 
it in two directions with this harrow. It may bury 
the crowns a little; this will do them no harm. All 
foxtail grass, crabgrass and all young plantains, 
will be destroyed. I feel that, thanks to this tool, 
coupled with the use of phosphorus and the avoid- 
ance of fall grazing or late cutting, we can hold our 
alfalfa meadows for an indefinite number of years, 
perhaps for 10 or more» 

The Engine in the Alfalfa Field. — However, all 
was not solved yet for Woodland Farm. We had no 
surplus of horses and haying time was often a 
strenuous time. How would we get to do the har- 
rowing? The advent of a kerosene-burning tractor 
finished the solution. We hitched to the engine one 
of these spring'-tooth harrows cutting a swath 21 
feet wide. My 16-year-old boy ran the engine. It 
drew the harrows with ease and could have drawn 
more of them. It was a joy to watch it work. I 
feared that the heavy wheels might injure some of 





'V:T>1 ,.■«?< 



?^^^^%^^-^ 



fT:%'' 




1. Alfalfa with basic slag on Woodland Farm, 1912. 2. Alfalfa with no fer- 
tilization—check sti-ip— 1912. 3. Alfalfa with acid phosphate, 1912— 
Woodland Farm. 4. Check strip in acid phosphate plot — no treatment— 
1912. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 513 

the crowns; it seemed not to do so. We harrowed 
the alfalfa in two directions, tearing np every inch 
of the surface soil, destroying grass and making a 
soil mulch. The result was little less than marvel- 
ous. Even the old alfalfa weakened and thinned by 
the previous year's bad treatment came to life in 
large part, thickened up by stooling and seemed too 
good to break. I do not know what place the tractor 
has in farm economy; its weight may preclude its 
use for spring plowing, but it has evidently a great 
field of use on an alfalfa farm. It will plow in the 
fall, using the deep tilling plows; it will with ease 
keep the fields in garden-like tilth, free from grasses 
and weeds. In the South, on the prairie lands, this 
combination should have an especially good field 
and result in great good. In fact, the advent of this 
broad-sweeping alfalfa harrow with the tractor to 
draw it seems to me to mark the final completion of 
the necessary means to alfalfa growing in the region 
east of the Missouri Eiver. It should be of nearly 
equal use west of that line. 

The Bierwagen Method, or the Buried Crown in 
Alfalfa. — Daniel Bierwagen is a picturesque individ- 
ual in Stanley Co., S. D. From his own observation 
and experience he has evolved a new system of al- 
falfa culture, especially applicable to cold and arid 
regions. This is the system of the buried crown. In 
studying the native legumes of his region, he ob- 
served that they grew thriftily where the wash of 
the hills continually tended to deposit silt, and more 
deeply bury the crowns. Acting on this hint, he 



514 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sowed alfalfa on a field that had by overflow been 
covered deep with mud, which on drying had cracked 
open to a depth of 4 inches to 6 inches. His seed 
falling on the hard surface rolled into the cracks, 
germinated there and after a while the leaves 
emerged, followed by the stems leaving the crowns 
buried several inches. Later he harrowed the land, 
filling the cracks, but not of course before the plants 
had become strong enough to withstand treatment. 
The results were most promising, the alfalfa stand- 
ing the winter perfectly and also resisting drouth 
well. He could cultivate without injury to the buried 
crowns. This led him to experiment to see how he 
could bury crowns on land that did not crack open to 
give him any natural opportunity to do this. I quote 
his words : 

"Having arrived at these conclusions, I was so thoroughly- 
convinced that this is the proper method of alfalfa culture 
that I risked a large amount of Turkestan seed on a field 
which had been overflowed and had received a deposit of 
mud, which after being dried, was from 4" to 6" in depth. 
This mud, in the drying process, cracked, leaving openings 
from 2" to 3" wide and as deep as the thickness of the mud. 
This field least appeared to be in shape for a coming alfalfa 
field of any field I ever saw, that is looking at it from a 
standpoint of common alfalfa philosophy. But believing in 
my discovery, I proceeded, without any further preparation 
of the ground, to sow this land to alfalfa, trusting that most 
of the seeds would roll into the cracks. I seeded it broadcast 
at the rate of from 5 to 7 pounds per acre. After seeding, 
I ran a common harrow, with teeth slanted back, over it 
once. This served to make enough loose mulch on top of 
the crusted mud so the first rains could cover the seeds 
sufficiently to germinate. Then I left matters to nature. 

"The first result was that by this act I fully established 
the correctness of my philosophy concerning the nature of 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 515 

alfalfa; for this field for the last four years has been the 
talk and admiration of the county and its fame has spread 
over the state. The last two very dry years fully proved 
that the crown covering method is the only method by 
which alfalfa culture can be carried to complete success in 
the northwest; for this part of my large alfalfa field has 
produced well in spite of the extreme drouth. 

"To make my method clear, I will explain the workings 
of nature in this field. After the seed had germinated in 
these cracks, the little plants grew rapidly, forming their 
crowns at the bottom of the cracks. The action of the air 
and later rains gradually dissolved the dried mud into a 
fine mulch and gradually covered up the crowns; later wash 
from the surrounding hills added more cover to it until now 
the most of the plants are covered up to the depth of 6" to 
8". 

"After I was fully convinced, in my own mind, that the 
superior growth of this part of the field was due to the 
buried crown, I ,began experiments on lands not so situated 
as to receive any soil deposits carried by water from ad- 
joining highlands. On this kind of land, certain methods had 
to be resorted to in order to obtain the same results. Here 
the land was thoroughly disked, setting the disc so it would 
leave trenches.. The seed was sown in these trenches and no 
harrowing done. All was left for the rains to cover the seed 
and gradually level the land. Good results were obtained 
only in spots, owing to the different texture of the soil over 
the field as the disc would not make even trenches. In some 
places the trenches were not deep enough, and the crowns 
did not receive sufficient covering; but in every case where 
the trenches were deep enough — say a depth of at least 4" — 
the alfalfa sown last August has gone through the winter 
without any apparent harm from the winter's severe weather. 

"In another test, where one-year-old plants were set out 
by hand in trenches and covered up to a depth of 4" (the 
covering being done gradually), the results are extremely 
promising. The sprouts present at this time indicate a growth 
for the coming season of as many as 150 stems from one 
crown. While my method of the buried crown has not, as yet, 
fully emerged from the experimental stage, it has carried me 
to the following very well based ccnclusions: 



616 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

"First, that in order wholly to overcome winterkilling, 
caused either by extreme cold or heaving by ice gathering 
around the crowns, and also to overcome sun scalding dur- 
ing extreme summer heat after the first crop is taken off, 
the farmer must plant his seed in open trenches which are 
from 4" to 6'' deep and from 14" to 18" apart. Care, how- 
ever, must be taken that the trenches are not run down steep 
grades, which would cause the water to run in the trenches. 
The covering of the seed must be left to the rains and the 
wind. After the plants are about 6" above the surface of 
the ground, then the final leveling process must be begun by 
means of a common harrow by frequent harrowing. This 
harrowing should be continued until the field is leveled, and 
the crowns well buried to a depth of at least 4". 

"Second, that by the buried crown method, the farmer 
can easily gain an extra crop, for the reason that the buried 
crown will throw out, late in the fall, a large number of 
sprouts, which will remain below the surface of the ground 
and thus keep alive, waiting for spring that they may start 
growing again at the first call of growing weather; thus often 
making a growth of from 6" to 8" before the exposed crown 
recovers from the rigors of the past winter. 

"Third, that the covered crown method is the only way 
by which an alfalfa field can be made permanent or ever- 
lasting; thus is explained and established, the truth em- 
bodied in the German name for alfalfa, which is Ewiger Klee, 
or Eternal Clover. By the buried crown method, that part 
of the top growth which is covered with soil, never dies. 
Frost does not affect it. It lives through the winter, and 
not only lives, but develops independent small roots; if any 
injury befalls the main tap-root or the crown, these little 
feeder roots become independent tap-roots, and a new crown 
is developed just above the old crown; so it often happens 
that where one crown is destroyed by a mole or other rodent, 
as many as 20 new crowns take the place of the one dead one. 

"Fourth, that by the buried crown method alone, soil cul- 
tivation and moisture conservation can be practiced continu- 
ously without material injury to the crowns. A field, under 
this method, can be disktd or harrowed with a spring-tooth 
harrow, as often as a crop is taken off; or, if only a top mulch 
is desired to retain moisture, a common harrow can be run 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 517 

over the field without touching the main crown. While in 
the case of the exposed crown, disking or even harrowing will 
wound the crown, which causes rot to set in, the result being 
weakening and consequent death of the plant. 

"Fifth, that by the buried crown method, alfalfa culture 
can be carried to a successful issue in sections of the United 
States where heretofore, under the common practice, it had 
proved a rather uncertain speculation, owing to climatic ex- 
tremities and heaving by ice, both being guarded against by 
a four-inch soil cover. 

"Sixth, that by the buried crown method, never more 
than five pounds of seed are required per acre, if seeded 
broadcast, and considerably less if planted with some kind of 
a drill. The thin planting gives the best results both in dry 
and wet seasons. In wet seasons, the plant will throw out 
several hundred stems and completely take up all the avail- 
able space. In dry seasons, the plant not only adjusts itself 
to the amount of available moisture, but owing to its stronger 
root development, is enabled to collect more moisture and 
thus produce a crop where thickly planted fields fail." 

There must be great merit in the Bierwagen sys- 
tem for the dry and cold plains of the Northwest. 
It seems hardly worth while for the region east of 
the Missouri, although it may well be worth testing 
even here. 

Alfalfa Hardiness. — Alfalfas vary immensely in 
hardiness, according to variety and the locality from 
which the seed comes. Arabian and Peruvian al- 
falfas winterkill in the northern states; seed from 
Arizona is not hardy in Nebraska; Nebraska seed 
is not always hardy in the Dakotas. Seed from the 
Dakotas is hardy almost anywhere in the United 
States, as is also the Grimm, and the Siberian varie- 
ties brought over by Prof. N. E. Hansen will stand 
the severest extremes of climate. It has not yet 



518 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

been fully demonstrated whether the hardy char- 
acteristics of the Grimm and Siberian varieties pre- 
dominate in a cross. In some cases their pecnliar 
habits of growth and some of their other character- 
istics, such as color of blossom, seem to predominate 
over like characters in a cross with the common 
alfalfa. Since alfalfa is a cross-fertilized plant it 
will obviously be impossible to grow these varieties 
on a large scale, so that the seed can be distributed 
to farmers in general without some crossing with 
the common alfalfas. In order to prevent this the 
plants grown for seed would have to be isolated 
from neighboring fields by means of wire screens to 
keep away bees and other insects, and obviously this 
is impracticable when the work is to be carried on in 
a commercial way. However, the farmer need not 
worry over this point, so long as his seed comes 
from the northwest. The severe winters and dry 
summers there will tend to keep weeded out the 
weaker strains, especially where the meadows are 
left standing for a great many years, as is now the 
custom in Montana and the Dakotas. It is not un- 
common there to find a meadow 10 years old and 
there are several that have been proved to be over 
30 years old. So long as our seed comes from that 
region it is sure to be hardy, and we have evidences 
that some of the other characteristics of the newer 
varieties are dominant and that we will therefore be 
able to maintain these characters in spite of contin- 
ual crossing with the common alfalfas. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 519 

In habit of growth and foliage some of the Sibe- 
rian varieties are inferior to the common alfalfa. In 
hardiness, habit of root growth and especially the 
way their crowns are formed they are vastly supe- 
rior in most instances to the common alfalfa. Now 
if it only can be demonstrated that the new, hardy 
alfalfas will take on the desirable characteristics of 
both the common and the original hardy varieties 
it will be a wonderful thing for not only the farmer 
who lives in regions where severe winters are the 
rule but also for his neighbor further south. Much 
earnest work is being done along this line at present, 
and a few years' time will no doubt reveal much of 
interest and value in this highly important branch 
of agricultural plant breeding. 

The Grimm. — This alfalfa is named after Wende- 
lin Grimm, the man who introduced it from Ger- 
many in 1857 and began growing it on his farm in 
Carver Co., Minn. He called it ''ewiger klee" or 
everlasting clover, and at first had a little difficulty 
in getting it established. Many of the plants died, 
due no doubt to the fact that Minnesota has more 
severe winters than the original home of the legume. 
Grimm persistently saved the seed, however, year 
after year planting more alfalfa until it gradually 
became naturalized, by this time only the hardiest 
plants being left. For many years this variety was 
grown only in this one neighborhood until within 
the last 10 years, when it was taken up by seedsmen 
and its virtues extolled over the country, until now 



520 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a considerable acreage is grown, especially in tlie 
northwest. 

Grimm has several characteristics which make it 
more desirable than the ordinary alfalfa. In the 
first place it is extremely hardy and resists cold 
weather almost as well as do the Siberian varieties. 
It is a hybrid alfalfa, the result of an accidental 
cross between the common purple-blooming alfalfa, 
Medicago sativa, and the yellow-blooming Medicago 
falcata. Its blossoms commonly are a greenish-yel- 
low or greenish-purple, and this is one of the easiest 
ways to identify the plants. Commonly several dif- 
ferent-colored blossoms will be found on the same 
plant. 

The crown of the Grimm plant grows somewhat 
larger than that of the common alfalfa and fre- 
quently is submerged about an inch below the sur- 
face of the ground, although this is not always the 
case. Then the root is more often branched than is 
the common variety; nor does it extend down so 
deeply in the soil. Grown in the cornbelt under 
ordinary conditions, it often is difficult to distin- 
guish between the Grimm and the common alfalfa 
while the plants are still young. The bloom is the 
one really apparent distinguishing feature of the 
Grimm. Wlien one finds a greenish cast in the blos- 
som he can be certain that it is the Grimm. It is 
also believed by some that, due to a larger number 
of shoots which come up from the large crown of 
the Grimm, it will yield heavier than the common 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 521 

variety, and that it will not bo necessary to have 
so thick a stand where it is planted. This point has 
not been fully demonstrated as yet, although the 
indications are that the Grimm does yield heavier 
than the common alfalfa. 

Siberian Varieties. — The Siberian varieties intro- 
duced by Prof. Hansen have been experimented with 
for several years in the Dakotas and Minnesota, and 
reliable data are just beginning to be gathered con- 
cerning their value and adaptability to our agricul- 
ture. The present indications are that in hardiness 
and possibly some other characteristics they are as 
superior to the Grimm as that variety is superior 
to the common alfalfa. As yet the seed is so scarce 
and high-priced that it is out of the question to grow 
them on a large scale, but in a few years there will 
be more seed and they can be grown more commonly, 
if their merits justify their substitution for the com- 
mon alfalfa in regions where the winters are severe 
and possibly in regions of only moderately cold win- 
ters. In our tests in Ohio carried on in a small way 
it seemed that the first year that the plants were set 
out they would outyield the Grimm to about the ex- 
tent that the Grimm outyields the common alfalfa. 
No definite conclusions have been reached as to this 
point as yet, however. 

Cossack. — This variety, imported by Hansen, 
seems at present to be of more value than the other 
Siberian varieties. It is, like the Grimm, a hybrid, 
being a cross between a yellow-flowering and a 



522 



ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



purple-flowering variety. In appearance it is nmcli 
like the Grimm, excepting that the crowns seem to 
grow larger, some of them growing as large as 15 
inches in diameter. Like the Grimm, it is perfectly 
hardy and the crown is partly or wholly submerged. 
The flowers range in color from the pure yellow to 
purple, with all shades in between. From our tests 
up-to-date it would seem that the Cossack is some- 
what superior in yield to the Grimm, although con- 
clusive tests have not been made as yet. 

Cherno. — This variety so closely resembles the 
Cossack that it is doubtful whether they really are 
distinct varieties or not. 

Orenherg. — Possibly this is the most sensational 
in some of its characteristics of all the Siberian 
alfalfas. It has a large crown, with no tap-root at 
all, but with a large number of small roots which 
branch out in all directions, some of them running 
out horizontally at a depth of about 8 inches, send- 
ing up new plants from time to time. Mr. Haas in 
North Dakota, who has probably had more experi- 
ence in growing these new varieties than any other 
man in this country, reports that on a four-year-old 
Orenberg plant baby plants were found growing as 
far away as 15 feet from the mother plant. The 
crowns are found about 4 inches below the surface 
of the ground and winterkilling is hence next to an 
impossibility with this variety. It is not believed 
that the Orenberg can be cut for hay more than 
twice in a season in the cornbelt, although present 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 523 

indications are that it will be a heavy yielder. The 
stems are finer than those of the common alfalfa, 
very thick and the foliage is of fine quality. It 
would seem that this would be an excellent variety 
for the cornbelt as well as the northwest, but at 
present the seed is scarce and high-priced. In a 
few years there will be more of it for distribution 
and data about it will by that time be more com- 
plete. 

Semipalatinsh. — This variety has coarser foliage 
than the other Siberian varieties, and is more 
branching and recumbent in its habit of growth. It 
was hoped that it would be a great pasture plant 
on the arid western plains. In general character- 
istics it resembles the Grimm, but due to its coarse- 
ness it is doubtful whether it would make as good 
hay, especially if it were grown on fertile soil. 

Baltic. — This variety so closely resembles the 
Grimm that there does not appear to be any reason 
for keeping it as a distinct variety. 

Danger in Using Too Much Acid Phosphate. — 
That there is danger in using too much acid phos- 
phate on alfalfa meadows was clearly demonstrated 
to us on Woodland Farm the past season (1915). 
Two of our alfalfa meadows are separated merely 
by a farm road and have both been seeded the same 
length of time and treated in the same manner, 
except that one has had several applications of acid 
phosphate while the other has had basic slag instead. 
Ordinarily we cannot see much difference where 



524 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

these two forms of phosphorus are used as top- 
dressings for alfalfa fields. This past rainy season, 
however, fully demonstrated to us that one can get 
an excess of acid phosphate. Usually the north field, 
where the acid phosphate has been applied, has 
yielded heavier alfalfa than the south field, as it is 
naturally more fertile, but the past rainy season 
showed just the reverse. The first cutting on both 
fields was about equal, both fields being exception, 
ally heavy, but the second cutting on the south field 
(where the basic slag had been applied) not only 
yielded a crop that was enough superior that it was 
readily apparent to the inexperienced eye, but the 
north field was also a sicklier color, being attacked 
more by rust and plainly showing the effects of too 
much acid in a soil naturally alkaline. Probably in 
a normal year there would not have been so striking 
a contrast, but it has fully settled in our own minds 
which to use for top-dressing alfalfa — basic slag or 
acid phosphate. 

Turhestan Alfalfa. — This variety was introduced 
by the United States Government some years ago 
in the hope that it would prove more drouth-resist- 
ant than the common alfalfa on certain soils. Noth- 
ing much was heard of it until a few years ago, when 
seedsmen awoke to the fact that imported Turkestan 
seed was exceedingly low in price. Immediately the 
country was flooded with a large amount of Turke- 
stan seed and many farmers throughout the cornbelt, 
attracted largely by the low price of the seed. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 525 

planted it, and after a year had passed found that 
the alfalfa was much inferior to the ordinary. In 
fact, much of it winterkilled the first winter and that 
which did live through did not begin to equal the 
ordinary alfalfa in yield. The lesson learned will 
long be remembered by those men who had this 
experience and now it is scarcely necessary to say 
anything against sowing Turkestan seed, as the av- 
erage farmer knows for himself what it is. A safe 
rule for those in the cornbelt to follow is to plant 
only seed grown in this country. If it comes from a 
territory further north than his, he will be surer 
of getting seed that will be hardy. Where severe 
winters are the rule it is better to sow seed from the 
northwest or else the Grimm or one of the Siberian 
varieties, if they are available at not too high a 
price. 

Transplanting Alfalfa, — The work of increasing 
special strains of desirable alfalfa is being hastened 
by transplanting the roots. Prof. N. E. Hansen has 
inaugurated this interesting work. It is of espe- 
cial interest to all that great region of semi-aridity 
in the West and Northwest, where alfalfa seed pro- 
duction is easiest and where it should naturally all 
be produced, since there grown it is certain to be 
hardy. I quote from Prof. Hansen as follows : 

"On May 2 at Ipswich, S. D., alfalfa plants were set at the 
rate of 100 per minute, or 6,000 per hour by machine. Dem- 
onstrations of this machine planting were first made April 
23 at Brookings and a half dozen other points later. The 
plants were set with plow, spade and hoe. I claim no origin- 



526 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ality for the method except that this is the first time where 
a machine has been used for transplanting alfalfa. I have 
combined an old oriental method with an American machine, 
one of the standard transplanting machines used for tobacco, 
cabbage, tomatoes and many other plants, which used a nine- 
inch shoe slightly widened at the back by a local blacksmith 
to allow more space for the alfalfa roots. 

"My alfalfa studies indicate that transplanting is an an- 
cient practice, reported from India, France, England and 
South America. Under certain conditions in intensive agricul- 
ture it would naturally come in for such a long-lived plant as 
alfalfa. I have used the method since the spring of 1907 
with the new alfalfas I brought over from Russia and Siberia 
as Agricultural Explorer sent out by the Secretary of Agri- 
culture. I have been much pleased with the wonderfully 
vigorous growth of these alfalfa plants and with the good 
results obtained by the many farmers who have set out these 
one-year plants. When set in good garden soil 2'x4' Vv^e get 
plants with over 100 shoots to the crown, and bearing as 
much as 3 ounces of seed per plant the third year, on plants 
transplanted the first year from seed. This means 1,029 
pounds of seed per acre. The variety was the one secured in 
Russia, which I have named the Cossack. Prom present pros- 
pects they will yield much more the present season. Some 
farmers report obtaining 7,000 to 8,000 seeds per plant the 
first year, and one North Dakota farmer reports raising one 
pound of seed in 1911 from eight plants set in the spring of 
1910, which means 25,000 seeds per plant. 

"At present I give this out simply as an item of agri- 
cultural news and do not advise the method until its value has 
been demonstrated. However, here are some of my reasons 
for undertaking the work: 

"That 20 pounds of seed per acre means 106 seeds per 
square foot. Instead of that every plant should have several 
square feet. 

"The parasitic vine known as dodder is a serious menace 
to the alfalfa industry, as many fields are infested with it. 
In Europe such fields are put out of commission by the 
government. Plants in hills could easily be kept clean. 



SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 527 

"The drouth resistance would be increased by giving the 
plants more room. 

"The growing of plants on well-inoculated soil would pro- 
vide perfect inoculation. 

"A very important reason is that it would avoid injury 
from disking. Splitting the alfalfa crowns by the usual discs, 
harrows and spike-toothed renovators affords easy access to 
the soil fungi and the plants soon become black-hearted and 
decayed at the heart. This may have some bearing on the 
root rot, which is reported to be quite destructive in Arizona, 
and the Texas root rot, which has been very destructive in 
Texas since 1892. 

"I am fully aware that this is contrary to all the present 
teachings of the experiment stations, farm papers and farm- 
ers' institute lectures, but why should we mutilate or maim 
a plant that should last several centuries? Alfalfa fields in 
the orient are shown 400 years old, but the orientals do not 
mutilate their plants as we do. The heart of an alfalfa plant 
should be held as sacred as the heart of an oak tree. 

"Alfalfa is a poor fighter the first year, as the strength 
goes below the ground, hence it is often choked out by weeds, 
which make more top than root. But by setting out a good- 
sized alfalfa plant, often as big as one's middle finger, they 
can hold their own better against the weeds. 

"All this has come from studying the individuality of the 
alfalfa plant. I think it will be the best method for growing 
pure seed, and that it will work out from the forage stand- 
point also. If transplanting proves to be a good thing no 
doubt men of mechanical genius will soon invent machines 
Ytith mechanical feeds and using four horses instead of two, 
so as to do the work more cheaply. But even at this present 
preliminary stage I believe that the method will greatly hasten 
the spread of the hardy Russian and Siberian alfalfas through- 
out the prairie Northwest. The plants are grown the first 
year in drills much like carrots and beets, and are dug with 
a tree digger. 

"Finally, so many new questions are raised by this new 
departure that they cannot all be discussed in a brief article. 
But remember that the method promises improvement in the 



528 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 

following respects: Overcrowding, dodder, drouth resistance, 
inoculation, crown rot, choking from weeds and increased seed 
production." 



INDEX. 



Air, nitrogen in the, 225, 
Alabama, alfalfa in, 74, 495. 
Alfalmo, 418. 
Algeria, alfalfa in, 474. 
Alfalfa, a balanced feed, 406. 

a desert plant, 84. 

a soil enricher, 234. 

action of on horses' kidneys, 
375. 

after crimson clover, 164. 

after oats, 213. 

alsike clover and, 269. 

ants in, 427. 

Arabian, 82. 

as a pasture plant, 336. 

Babylonian, 48. 

bacteria, 37, 85, 86, 224. 

baling hay, 356. 

barns for hay, 466. 

bees and, 345. 

bloating on, 338. 

bloom test, the, and time to 
cut, 293. 

bran and, 359. 

bread from, 360. 

brome grass and, 270. 

brood mares and, 377. 

cattle feeding on, 380. 

cattle finished on, 352. 

cattle grazing on, 346. 

cattle on in South America, 
351. 

chemical composition of, 362. 

corn after, 155. 

cost of growing, 243, 245. 

crimson clover with, 163. 

crop rotation and, 237. 

cultivating, 254. 

culture of, 95. 

curing in the mow, 300. 

cut, when to, 157. 

cut when shoots appear, 90. 

cutting for soiling weakens, 
89. 

cutting invigorates, 91. 

cutting in the West, time of, 
299 

cutting, the* first, 294. 

cutting, time of, 293. 

dairying and, 387. 

developed in dry regions, 48. 

digestibility of, 366. 

diseases of, 266. 

disking, 254. 

dodder in, 264. 



Alfalfa- 
drainage for, 102. 
drouths and, 93. 
duration of stand, 239. 
early cutting of harmful, 325. 
ewes on, 395. 
experiment station on feeding 

dairy cows, 388. 
fall seeding of, 204. 
fall seeding of a mistake, 486. 
first growth of, 88. 
for horses, 373. 
for poultry, 335. 
foxtail in, 41. 
frosted, dangerous, 343. 
Germany, alfalfa in, 52. 
Germany's yellow-blooming 

518. 
gophers in, 424. 
grasses in, 258. 
grasshoppers in, 426. 
grazing, advantages of, 340. 
grazing sheep on, 393. 
Greeks and, 49. 
green, curing, 317. 
green in dairy rations, 328. 
Grimm, 82, 518. 
growth of, 84. 
hardy, 82, 517. 
hardiness of, 92. 
hardy types of, 81. 
hay, feeding sheep, 396. 

green or brown, 300. 

harvesting in the West, 299. 

in prairie lands, 497. 

making in rainy countries, 
309. 

value of, 121. 

yields of, 41. 
haying tools. 302, 
Hawaii, growing in, 473. 
history of, 46. 
honey from, 99. 
hogs fed, 402. 
hogs on, 344. 

hogs on in Nebraska, 413. 
hogs on in Oklahoma, 410. 
ice will kill, 93. 
inoculation, 199, 207, 211, 220. 
irrigating, 277. 
irrigation of, grown for seed, 

100. 
Johnson grass and, 498. 
lambs fed, 29. 

late mowing of injurious, 91. 
life of field of. 94. 



(529) 



530 



INDEX. 



Alfalfa- 
liming-, 476. 
meal, 360. 

meal and bran in Pennsyl- 
vania, 417. 
meal for cows, 390. 
meal, making, 417. 
melilotus prepares for, 494. 
midsummer seeding, 485. 
moisture a factor in growing, 

249. 
not a grass, 84. 
nurse-crops for, 201. 
oats with, 202. 
orchard grass and, 275. 
pasture, 323. 
pasture for horses, 345. 
pasturing with hogs, 404. 
Peruvian, 83. 
plant food from, 37. 
plowing for, 191. 
potash for, 511. 
poultry and, 415. 
prairie dogs in, 429. 
profits from, 247. 
protein in, 358. 
rain and haymaking, 309. 
red clover and, 268. 
rich soils and, 153. 
rock phosphate for, 183. 
roots, 38, 85, 103, 120, 139. 
roots in irrigated soils, 289. 
roots, nodules on, 165. 
root rot. 266. 
second cutting of, 90. 
seed, adulteration of, 441. 

coating with earth, 231. 

drilling in the, 220. 

examine samples of, 442. 

growing, 430. 

number of in bushel, 216. 

vitality of, 475. 

where grown, 99. 
seeding, 199, 207. 

after wheat, 209. 

in fall, 204. 

rate of, 216. 

thick and thin, 218. 

with a drill, 197. 

work after, 199. 
sheds for hay, 466. 
sheep and. 392. 
silage for cows, 391. 
siloing, 354. 
sod, plowing, 419. 
soiling, 323. 
soiling for hogs, 334. 
soiling for horses, 331. 
soiling for sheep, 332, 
soiling weakens, 89. 
soils. 104. 

sowing on irrigable land. 284. 
sowing, summary of, 476. 
sowing the seed. 219. 
spring sowing, 196. 
spring sowing, plowing for, 

195. 



Alfalfa— 

spring-sown, handling, 488. 

spring or summer seeding, 
483. 

Spain and, 52. 

stacking outdoors, 317. 

stand of, getting a, 101. 

stock on fields of, 296. 

summer sowing, 205. 

sweet clover in, 261. 

temperature extremes and, 87. 

tiling land for, 103. 

time to cut, 293. 

timothy in, 268. 

transplanting, 519. 

treading, danger of, 92. 

Turkestan, 97. 

types of, 80. 

varieties of, 78. 

water used by, 250. 

weeds in, 40. 258. 

weeds kill, 260. 

wheat and, 210. 

when to cut, 88, 200. 

wild in Montana, 105. 

winter-killing of, 297. 

yields of, 249. 

yields of hay, 41. 

yields of under irrigation, 
251. 
American Seeding Machine Co., 

186. 
Ants in alfalfa, 427. 
Argentina, alfalfa in, 348. 
Arkansas, alfalfa in, 75. 
Arlington, farm at, 147. 
Ashes, wood, for potash, 189. 

Bacteria, about, 226. 

Bacteria, conditions favoring, 

232. 
Bacteria for alfalfa, 224. 
Bacteria, how to get, 229. 
Bacteria, work of. 227. 
Baling alfalfa, 356. 
Baling, shed for, 468. 
Barley hay, 42, 200. 
Barley hay from alfalfa land, 

156. 
Barley, spring, alfalfa after, 

212 
Barns for hay, 466. 
Barn, the open-center hay, 308. 
Basic slag, 507. 
Basic slag, analysis of, 135. 
Basic slag for soils, 176. 
Bees and alfalfa. 345. 
Benitz, John, quoted, 349. 
Bicknell, Frank W., quoted, 348. 
Bierwagen, Daniel, quoted, 513. 
Blair. G. P.. mentioned. 500. 
Blinn, P. K., quoted, 422, 463. 
Bloat, curing, 341. 
Bloat, danger from, 338. 
Bloat from alfalfa, 10. 
Bluegrass and alfalfa. 273. 
Bluegrass, English, 276. 



INDEX. 



531 



Bluegrass in alfalfa, 260. 
Bonemeal, raw, 181. 
Bran, alfalfa for, 359. 
Brand, C. J., quoted, 446. 
Bread from alfalfa, 360. 
Breaking sod in Colorado, 421. 
Brome grass and alfalfa, 270. 
Brown, Edgar, quoted, 442. 
Brown, Loring, cited, 493. 
Buek, C. E., cited, 490. 
Burnett, E. A., quoted, 413. 

California, alfalfa in, 65. 
Canada thistles in fields. 259. 
Carbonate of lime, 107. 
Carlyle, W. L., quoted, 380. 
Castle Valley, alfalfa in, 11. 
Cattle feeding, alfalfa for, 380. 
Cattle finished on alfalfa, 352. 
Cattle on alfalfa, 346. 
Cattle on alfalfa in Argentina, 

351. 
Chalk, Selma, and lime, 498. 
Chemical composition of alfalfa, 

363. 
Chili, land in, 65. 
Clover, alsike, and alfalfa, 222, 

269. 

burr, 223. 

crimson, for hay, 163. 

crimson, for humus. 161. 

red, alfalfa with, 221. 

red, and alfalfa, 268. 

sweet, 80, 166. 
Colorado, alfalfa in, 70. 
Colorado, feeding in, 400. 
Columella on agriculture, 50. 
Corn after alfalfa, 155. 
Cornbelt, sowing alfalfa in the, 

481. 
Cottrell, H. M'., quoted, 417. 
Co"ws and alfalfa, 247. 
Cows, dairy, alfalfa for, 386. 
Cows, dairy, alfalfa silage for, 

391. 
Cows, dairy, soiling for, 326. 
Cowpeas for humus, 159. 
Crabgrass, 158, 511. 
Creighton University, alfalfa 

meal at, 861. 
Crop rotation, alfalfa in, 237. 
Curtiss, C. P., mentioned, 152. 
Cultivating alfalfa, 254. 
Cutting alfalfa, 294. 
Cutting, the first, 294. 

Dairymen and alfalfa, 387. 
Dairy rations, green alfalfa in, 

328. 
Dakotas and alfalfa seed, 99. 
Dawley, F. E., quoted, 73. 
Deep-tilling machines. 256. 
Desert, alfalfa and the, 279. 
Disc harrow, use of the, 196. 
Disking alfalfa, 254. 
Disking in lime, 477. 
Ditch banks, grassing, 289. 



Dodder, eradicating, 264. 
Drag, plank, 210. 
Dragging alfalfa soil, 196. 
Drainage and lime, 107. 
Dudding, Henry, quoted, 125. 
Duggar, J. F., quoted, 167. 

Egypt's soils. 111. 
Engine-harrowing, 512. 
England, alfalfa in, 52. 
England, soiling alfalfa in, 89. 
Ernest, Herr, 518. 
Europe, old fields in, 110. 
Ewes on alfalfa, 395. 

Feeding alfalfa hay in Kansas, 
378. 

Feeding cattle, alfalfa for, 380. 

Feeding experiments in Kan- 
sas, 382. 

Feeding in Oklahoma, 411. 

Feeding lambs, 397. 

Feeding sheep alfalfa hay, 396. 

"Feeds and Feeding" quoted, 
371. 

Fertility, adding, 186. 

Fertility, maintaining, 110. 

Fertilizing alfalfa, 95. 

Fertilizer distributor, 186. 

Fertilizers, 480. 

Flax with alfalfa, 202. 

Flooding system, the, 283. 

Florida phosphatic rock, 184. 

Forks, grapple, 305. 

Foxtail, 511. 

Foxtail, eradicating, 158. 

Foxtail in fields, 262. 

France, alfalfa in, 52. 

France, crimson clover in, 161. 

Freeman, G. F., quoted, 78, 97. 

Georgia, establishing alfalfa in, 
489. 

Georgia, middle, alfalfa in, 493. 

Germany, yellow-blooming al- 
falfa in, 518. 

Giltner, Robert, quoted, 274. 

Gophers and alfalfa fields, 424. 

Grasshoppers in alfalfa, 426. 

Grasses in alfalfa, 258. 

Grazing alfalfa, advantages of, 
340. 

Grazing lambs on alfalfa, 343. 

Grimm, Wendelin, 71. s, 

Griffith, C. J., quoted, 380. 

Hansen, N. E.. quoted, 517, 520. 
Haggard, Rider, on lucerne, 125. 
Harrington, H. H., quoted, 470. 
Harrow for weeds, 511. 
Harrow, spring-tooth, and en- , 

gine power, 512. " '? 

Harrow, the spring-tooth, 256. 
Harrowing alfalfa soil, 196. 
Hawaii, alfalfa in, 473. 
Hay, baling, 356. 

baling, shed for, 468. , 



532 



INDEX. 



Hay barn, the open-center, 308. 

brown, 315. 

caps, the use of, 319. 

cocking, 311. 

cocks, opening, 313. 

degree of dryness of, 314. 

feeding in the West, 399. 

feeding value of, 358, 396. 

green or brown. 300. 

keep from air, 314. 

loader, the, 303. 

mow, management of the, 316. 

mows, sweating of, 321. 

overfeeding with, 378. 

price of in South, 502. 

raking, 310. 

salting, 320. 

sleds, 304. 

spontaneous combustion in, 
321. 

the heating of, 315. 

unloading, 306. 

yields of, 341. 
Haying tools, 302. 
Haymaking time, 43. 
Headlee, T. J., quoted, 424, 427. 
Hoard, W. D., cited, 413. 
Honey from alfalfa, 99. 
Hopkins, Cyril G., cited, 127, 

140, 166, 227, 508. 
Hogs, alfalfa for, 402. 
Hogs, soiling for, 334. 
Horses and alfalfa, 373. 
Horses, fattening sale, 377. 
Horses on alfalfa pasture, 345. 
Horses, soiling for, 331. 
Huffman, C. E., cited, 490. 
Humus, deficiency of, 154. 
Humus in black soils, 108. 
Humus, legumes for, 160. 
Humus-making crops, 159. 



Illinois, sowing alfalfa in, 483. 

Indiana, alfalfa in, 75. 

Inoculating crimson clover, 163. 

Inoculation, 223. 

Inoculation and manure, 151. 

Inoculation in advance, 232. 

Inoculation, signs of, 233. 

Inoculation with soil, 230. 

Iowa, alfalfa in, 75, 129. 

Irrigate, how often to, 286. 

Irrigate, when to, 287. 

Irrigation contour levels. 280. 

Irrigation, growing alfalfa un- 
der, 277. 

Irrigation, the first, 285. 

Irrigation, yields of alfalfa un- 
der, 251. 



"Jack, J. F., mentioned, 184, 194, 

215. 
Jamison, John M., cited, 512. 
Jefferson, Thos., and alfalfa, 74. 
Judea and lime. 112. 



Kansas, alfalfa in, 71, 78. 
Kansas experiments, 382. 
Kansas feeding experiments, 

378. 
Kansas, seed in, 431. 
Kent, alfalfa in, 58. 
Kentucky, seeding in, 486. 
Kentucky, sweet clover in, 170. 
Kensington Farm, experience 

on, 490. 
Kessler, Alf., quoted, 290. 
Kinzer, R. J., quoted, 378. 

Lambs and alfalfa, 28. 
Lambs and sweet clover, 173. 
Lambs on alfalfa, 343. 
Lime, 107. 

adding to soils, 113. 

Alabama and, 495. 

airslaked, 118. 

apply, when to, 119. 

as a basis. 111. 

availability of, 112. 

basic slag as source of, 134. 

burned, 114. 

carbonate of in Montana, 106. 

carbonate of neutral, 114. 

caustic, 115. 

caustic, amount of, 118. 

chalk, Selma, and, 498. 

crabgrass and, 117. 

crushers of, 126. 

crushing, 131. 

depth to apply, 120. 

disking in, 477. 

distributing, 128, 477. 

effects of, 122. 

England's use of, 124. 

evidence of, 113. 

forms of, 115. 

functions of, 107. 

ground, 119. 

humus and, 108. 

in basic slag, 180. 

in soils, 130. 

in Tennessee, 116. 

Iowa's use of, 129. 

Mississippi and, 495. 

soils, location of, 138. 

Texas has, 138. 

uses of new, 126. 
Liming, value of, 121. 
Limestone pebbles, 38. 
Limestone gravel, 110. 
Livingstone, Robert, 73. 
Louisiana, alfalfa in, 74. 
Lovejoy, A. J., cited, 413. 
Lucerne (alfalfa), 55. 
Lucerne in Utah, 3. 

Machinery, care of haying, 307. 
Manures and humus, 150. 
Manure, methods of using, 157. 
Manure, spreading, 297. 
Mardis, J. T., quoted, 170. 
Mares, brood, and alfalfa, 377. 
Maryland, alfalfa in, 94. 



INDEX. 



583 



Maryland, lime in, 113. 

McDonald, J. P., and lime, 116. 

Meal from alfalfa, 360. 

Meal, making, 417. 

Melilotus (sweet clover), 80, 

166. 
Melilotus and alfalfa, 494. 
Mexico, alfalfa in, 290. 
Mexico, methods of irrigating, 

290. 
Milk flow and alfalfa, 386. 
Milk from alfalfa, 4. 
Miller, Henry, quoted, 66. 
Miller, M. F., quoted, 139. 
Minnesota, alfalfa in, 71. 
Mississippi, alfalfa in. 74. 
Mississippi, lime in, 495. 
Missouri, alfalfa in, 122. 
Moisture for alfalfa, 249. 
Montana, wild alfalfa in, 105. 
Mooers, C. A., quoted, 160. 
Mow, lifting hay to the, 304. 
Mowing or pasturing, 337. 
Mowing, repeating the, 326. 

Nebraska, alfalfa in, 71. 
Nebraska feeding experiments, 

407. 
Nebraska porkmaking, 413. 
New Jersey, alfalfa in, 59, 72. 
New York, alfalfa in, 30, 73. 
Nitrogen and inoculation, 223. 
Nitrogen, cost of commercial, 

162. 
Nitrogen, purchasing, 510. 
Nitrogen, securing, 224. 
Nitrogen, waste of, 109. 
Nodules on alfalfa, 165. 
Nurse-crops, 482. 
Nurse-crops, value of, 201. 

Oats, alfalfa after, 213. 
Oats with alfalfa, 202. 
O'Donnell, I. D., cited, 252, 295. 
Ohio, introduction of alfalfa in, 

12. 
Ohio, practice of sowing in, 480. 
Oklahoma, alfalfa in, 408. 
Orchard grass and alfalfa, 275. 
Overstocking alfalfa fields, 404. 

Pasturing, care in, 336. 

Pasturing or mowing, 337. 

Pasture plant, alfalfa as a, 336. 

Paterson, J. W., quoted. 176. 

Pennsylvania, alfalfa in, 129. 

Pennsylvania bulletin on alfal- 
fa, 72. 

Pennsylvania work with meal, 
417. 

Peoria Drill & Seeder Co., 186. 

Phosphate, acid, 507. 

Phosphate, acid, for sweet 
clover. 169. 

Phosphate, mineral, 181. 

Phosphate, natural, 181. 

Phosphate, rock, 507. 



Phosphates, available, 508. 
Phosphorus, 484. 

cost of, 188, 234. 

exports of, 135. 

for old fields, 505. 

how much? 187. 

needed, 148. 

sources of, 180. 

use of on Woodland Farm, 

185. 
Piper, C. v., mentioned, 215. 
Plowing, 191. 
Plowing alfalfa sod, 419. 
Plowing, deep, 191. 
Plowing, spring and summer 

sowing, 205. 
Plow, setting the, 420. 
Pork from alfalfa, 403. 
Porkmaking on alfalfa in Ne- 
braska, 413. 
Potatoes, alfalfa after, 206. 
Potash as a fertilizer, 189. 
Potash, cost of, 234. 
Potash for alfalfa, 511. 
Poultry, alfalfa for, 335, 415. 
Prairie dogs in alfalfa, 429. 
Protein in alfalfa, 358. 
Puget Sound, alfalfa along, 123, 

Quinn, C. E., quoted, 408. 

Rain and haymaking, 309. 
Rake, side delivery, 302. 
Rakes, sweep, 303. 
Range Creek, alfalfa on, 5. 
Range Valley, alfalfa in, 6. 
Roberts, H. F., on alfalfa, 97. 
Roberts, I. P., quoted, 162. 
Roman agriculture, 50, 
Rome upon limestone, 111. 
Root rot, 266. 

Rotation on 300-acre farm, 240. 
Rye and alfalfa, 203. 

Saintfoin, 60. 

Salting hay, 320. 

Schmitz, Nicholas, mentioned, 

67, 215. 
Scott, Mrs. Vinyard, 502. 
Seed adulterations, 441. 

bed preparation, 481. 

growing, 430. 

growing in the West, 445. 

production, principles of, 447. 

purity of, 442. 

vitality of, 475. 
Seed-bearing habit, the, 97. 
Seeding, midsummer. 485. 
Seeding, spring or summer, 483. 
Silage made from alfalfa, 354. 
Silage, steam-cured, 355. 
Silo, alfalfa for the, 354. 
Selby, A. D., quoted, 113, 132. 
Sheds for hay, 466. 
Sheep, alfalfa for, 392. 
Sheep in the cornbelt, 334. 
Sheep on small pastures, 333. 



584 



INDEX. 



Sheep, soiling for, 332. 

Short-horns, milking, 10. 

Slag, basic, 507. 

Slag, basic, and lime, 134. 

Slag, basic, for soils, 177. 

Slings, hay, 306. 

Smith, Bolton, mentioned, 499. 

Smith, H. R., quoted, 413. 

Soil for inoculation, 211, 230. 

Soil, manures and humus in, 

150. 
Soil, plowing for alfalfa, 191. 
Soils, acidity of, 136. 

and alfalfa. 101. 

alfalfa and rich, 153. 

and bacteria, 104. 

building, 146. 

phosphorus for, 176. 

rich for alfalfa, 153. 

sour, 136. 
Soiling alfalfa, 324. 
Soiling on pasture, 326. 
Sour soils, 136. 

South America, alfalfa in, 350. 
South, sweet clover in the, 495. 
Soybeans for humus, 160. 
Spalding deep-tilling machine, 

the, 256. 
Spanish colonists and alfalfa, 

64. 
Speed, C. E., mentioned, 502. 
Spontaneous combustion in hay, 

321. 
Spurrier, John, on alfalfa, 60. 
Stack, lifting hay to the, 304. 
Stacking outdoors, 317. 
Stephenson, Robert, quoted, 125. 
Stock, alfalfa a balanced feed 

for, 406. 
Storer. F. H„ quoted. 315. 



Stone quarry, visiting a, 144. 
Subsoiling, 194. 

Ten Eyck, A. M., quoted, 431. 
Tennessee, lime for alfalfa -in, 

116. 
Texas, alfalfa in, 470. 
Texas and lime, 138. 
Thomas phosphate, 136. 
Timothy in alfalfa, 268. 
Transplanting alfalfa, 519. 
Tull, Jethro, cited, 446. 

Utah, lucerne in, 3. 

Virginia, alfalfa in, 74. 
Vivian, Alfred, quoted, 180. 
Voorhees. E. B., on alfalfa, 72. 

Washington, Geo., and alfalfa, 

74. 
Water in soils, 154. 
Weeds in fields, 258. 
West, harvesting hay in the, 

299. o .- 

Westgate, J. M., on alfalfa, 60, 
81. 215, 273, 370, 383. 446. 

Wheat, alfalfa after, 209. 

Wheeler, G. C., quoted, 378. 

Wickson, E. J., quoted, 65. 

Wilcox, E. v., quoted, 473. 

Willard, J. T., quoted, 364. 

Williams, Glyne, quoted, 349. 

Woodland Farm, alfalfa on, 503. 

Woodland Farm in early days, 
34. 

Wyoming sweet clover feeding 
experiment, 173-174. 

Yates, E. V., cited. 499. 



) u^'-. 




000?fcfis035U 



